Intriguing and intelligent story of a chase for one man, the money and the bodies piling up in its wake.

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2008)

The past year (2007) has not been vintage for great films however there have been the odd exceptions and this violent story is one that really sticks out from the crowd. This maybe a Coen Brothers movie but unlike the bulk of their previous output, this is no comedy.
Story centres around two men, one ("Llewelyn") who finds a bag full of drug money whilst another hunts after him to retrieve it. The catch? The hunter is a violent amoral killer who just piles up the bodies in his wake to get to his goal. Add into this, Llewelyn's wife, small-town sheriff's and a host of bewildered town folk just trying to get on with their lives.
The chase goes from the back-country to the towns to over the Mexican border, and along the way the audience is taken on an unpredictable journey. This cat and mouse game between hunter and hunted never lets up, and the grizzly deaths along the way highlight clearly for all the depths to which the hunter is willing to go to to get what he wants.
With a story like this it won't appeal to all. However, I still strongly recommend it. Javier Bardem as the hunter is nothing less that sensational and plays the part to perfection. There has probably not been a more successfully unsettling character on the big screen since The Silence of the Lambs. For me he must be a favourite for the best acting Oscar. He is more than ably supported amongst others by Tommy Lee Jones (as a local sheriff) with a very notable performance by the lovely Kelly Macdonald as the poor suffering wife of the hunted man.
Add in some wonderful scenery and camera work, as well as some great script writing, and you get nothing less that a vintage piece of cinema.
I can't recommend this highly enough, it really is a great movie. Some may not stomach the unsettling atmosphere, but I would say it is worth the effort.