There's no justice, but all is not lost

Rating: 9/10 (7 December 2007)

Doing what they do best, the Coen Brothers bring us another grim picture of people behaving badly. One difference this time is there are no just desserts, no cunning people working the right angle, and no hero to ride in, figure it all out and save the day.
In less capable hands, this might turn into a real downer of a movie, but the way the Coen Brothers tell a story, it comes off less as an indictment against humanity and more a roller coaster of a tense, cautionary tale.
You know that sinking feeling you get when you realize that things are not going to end well? And then there's the already-sunk feeling, like when you drive past a car accident and you can see that it did not end well. This movie gave me a mix of those two feelings, gripping my stomach, through nearly every frame.
Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones (and Josh Brolin, to a lesser degree) give shockingly good performances. The wrinkles and lines on Jones' face are like a character all to themselves. And it's Jones' sheriff, along with a few moments of perfectly wry humor, that lift this unpleasant story up and allow you to believe that although it's certainly a mess, perhaps all is not lost for our human endeavor.
But maybe it is. Or not.