I had heard that “No Country for Old
Men” was bleak and violent, but it also got a lot of critical
praise. I love me some Coen brothers, so I had to give the movie a
shot. The messed up thing is, the movie actually fools you for a
while, making you think it is a really awesome crime thriller. You
wind up really invested in some of the characters before the film
totally pulls the rug out from under you.
Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss, a guy
who is out hunting when he stumbles across the aftermath of a drug
deal gone wrong. He finds a bunch of dead and dying men, a truck
full of drugs, and a satchel of cash. Llewelyn makes off with the
cash, but winds up with a crew of unsavories on his trail, including
the creepy Anton Chigur (Javier Bardem). The relentless Chigur
carries a pneumatic bolt gun, and sometimes decides whether or not to
kill someone with it by flipping a coin. Meanwhile, Sheriff Ed Bell
(Tommy Lee Jones) tries to find Llewelyn before Chigur does.
The first two thirds of “No Country
for Old Men” is outstanding. Besides beautiful photography of the
west Texas landscape, the film is chock full of tight performances.
Llewelyn, it turns out, is a lot smarter and tougher than anyone
would have guessed, and you start to believe that he may be a match
for Anton Chigur.
Then the movie gets needlessly
depressing, and you wind up wondering why you invested two hours in
it. You know, coming in, that a Coen brothers movie is going to be
violent, and that people are going to die. What I didn't expect was
the utter bleakness, the nihilism of the conclusion. Rarely have I
seen a movie expend so much effort to make me like a character, only
to discard them so perfunctorily. Ultimately, this is a crappy story
told by two very talented filmmakers. Ethan and Joel Coen have made
some of my favorite movies, including “Miller's Crossing” and
“The Big Lebowski”, but they really screwed us over on this one.
2 stars out of 5
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