Look What's Coming

There is so much you can say about The Coen Brothers' masterpiece "No Country for Old Men". It was so nice to see such a rich, multi-layered, lyrical film that masquerades as a run of the mill suspense yarn. Of course you can say that about any number of the Coens' films, but I think they have never been so blunt on the nature of violence like they have in this picture.

The story is based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, and follows the plot pretty faithfully but with a few of the Coen's own interpretations thrown into the mix. When Llewelyn Moss (2007's busiest man in Hollywood Josh Brolin) is out hunting, he stumbles upon a bloody aftermath. Dead bodies are scattered around a Texas valley with a truck full of drugs. When Llewelyn investigates further he finds a case full of money that is now left unclaimed. When Llewelyn decides to take the money, we find it leads to even more trouble. Enter Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) a hired killer with no conscience who would kill someone at the flip of a coin. His sadistic weapon of choice is a cattle gun which is handy when shooting off locks to a door as well as people in the head. Anton has been brought in the capture Lewelyn and get the money, but pretty soon he becomes a loose canon not caring who gets in his way. Another major character is the local Sheriff Ed Tom (Tommy Lee Jones) who's trying to catch up with Llewelyn and trying to make sense of this violent world he now finds him in.

All the usual genre stuff of money and drugs really don't matter much in this film. Much like the Coen's other masterpiece "Fargo", we never get a clear answer as to what happens to the money and by the end of the movie it doesn't really matter. What this film does, I think very successfully is comment on how violence is ongoing, and once it starts it's unstoppable. I have been squeamish in the past about violence in movies, especially ones who claim to be commenting on it but mostly exploiting it for mindless reasons. "No Country for Old Men" gets it right all the way through, in fact as the film's violence becomes more and more senseless, the less of it we see. The two most significant deaths in the film happen off camera and only one of those shows us the aftermath. This makes the deaths even more disturbing and sticks with you.

But what also makes this into a great movie is the Coens' immeasurable craft. These guys may very well be the best filmmakers alive today. The use of how they build suspense and atmosphere is brilliant. There is hardly a note of music through the whole film, but the images are so powerful you don't even notice it. The addition of lighting and sound effects make up some of the best most suspenseful moments in film history. One such scene includes the unscrewing of a light bulb and the sound of a telephone ringing and that is all I'm going to say.

As for the performances, let's just say I don't think they could be better. Bardem is already getting some Oscar buzz as Chigurh and he makes this character frightening each time he's on screen, I almost closed my eyes more than once when he appeared. Brolin has a great everyman quality in the part of Llewelyn and for once, he's not playing a bad guy, but he is someone who is in over his head. Then there is Tommy Lee Jones, some one who already gave a great performance with "In the Valley of Elah", but with Sheriff Tom, Jones has found a kindred spirit, and his performance is really the heart and soul of what this film is about, his final speech in the film leaves you with the kind of disillusionment his character feels.

I can go on and on about this film, it is definitely a great one. I think I'll write more about it later, but until then I'll just leave my four star rating and tell you to go see this movie.

4 stars out of 4