Directed by: The Coen Brothers
Premise: A hunter (Josh Brolin) stumbles on the
remains of a drug deal gone bad and finds two million dollars in cash. Upon
taking the money, he finds himself hunted by the local sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones)
and a psychotic hit man (Javier Bardem).
What Works: There is a lot for filmgoers to enjoy
in No Country for Old Men. As a Coen Brothers film, it features the usual
components we have come to expect from their work. The film features beautiful
cinematography and uses the western landscape to its advantage, giving its
characters lots of empty space to crawl around in. It also has great
performances by Tommy Lee Jones as a local sheriff and Javier Bardem as a
psychotic hit man. Jones has a great world-weariness about his character and he
delivers dialogue laced with irony and humor but tempered with an underlying
sadness. It is Bardem, however, who steals the show. His quiet, intense demeanor
and blank expression contrast with the kinds of assassins audiences are used to
seeing on film and the character emerges as one of the most menacing villains of
his kind since The
Terminator. The dialogue of the film is written very carefully and like
other Coen Brother’s films, the characters of No Country for Old Men speak in colloquial language that has a lot of local color. The dialogue and the
accent do not go overboard like they did in Fargo but retain a fun and character driven sound that invokes the environment of the
film.
What Doesn’t: The film is too slow in parts and
the ending is a let down. The story plods along with long spaces between plot
points, many scenes go on with little accomplished, and too many characters are
introduced without any purpose. In the end, the story leaves too much in the
plots and the themes unresolved. A contrast can be made with the similarly
themed but far superior Se7en.
Downbeat and open conclusions may be perfectly appropriate in the right film,
and No Country for Old Men is certainly a candidate, but where Se7en brought its storylines and themes to an appropriate climax, No Country for
Old Man drops the ball and just ends the film. It is a disappointing
conclusion to what is, up until then, a great piece of work.
Bottom Line: No Country for Old Men suffers from some of the same problems as Brokeback Mountain. It features gorgeous cinematography and some terrific performances but it piddles along and finally stops a few yards short of the goal line.