Good but a little bit over-hyped

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2007)

I went into this movie expecting great things, given all the critical praise and high Metacritic marks. I don't necessarily love every Coen brothers movie but respect their work.
I gave it an "8" because of the amazing cinematography and beautiful locations and some mostly very good acting. On the other hand, in some of the monologues I thought the pacing dragged perhaps a function of the direction.
The main problem I found with the movie is that it didn't really stick together for me. The two parallel sub-plots really didn't hang together well, the story of the guy who takes the money and the story of the sheriff who observes the proceedings. The sheriff is supposed to function as a philosophical observer on violence and sociopathy but he seemed in some ways to be inessential to the main narrative.
I think the Coens may want the images and the mythic Western context to speak for themselves in ways that they don't at least for me.