No Ending For "No Country"

Rating: 8/10 (13 August 2008)

The Coen Brothers brilliantly gave us 120 minutes of excellence in a runtime of 122 for "No Country for Old Men." A gripping edge of your seat emotional heart-stopper of a film offers the story of a man, played expertly by Josh Brolin, who found something that he wasn't supposed to find. Now he doesn't want to give it back. However, hot on his trail is one of the most despicable on-screen characters in cinema history portrayed by Javier Bardam. His character is so bad, he bleeds evilness! The third leg of the stool is the role of the sheriff, played nostalgically by Tommy Lee Jones. Incidentally, at no time do any of the three major characters ever appear on screen at the same time. If nothing else, the Coen Brothers are great storytellers. The film is wonderful, BUT .............
***** FAIR WARNING ****** Do not read any further if you do not want a general sense of how the film ends.
The movie ends with no resolution. We never are clearly told what happens to Josh Brolin. Nor do we know what happens to Javier's character. We never find out whether or not Tommy Lee Jones accomplishes anything other than retirement. We are left to guess. I felt really cheated. What should have been a "10" on a scale of 1 to 10, is kicked down to an "8." I despise being cheated when watching a film. I want resolution and I do not want to have to guess at what the ending is all about. I expected an extremely violent confrontation between all three men and got zilch. There was no explosive climax to the film as promised on the DVD cover. I suppose the Editor got scissor happy - or the Coen's ran out of money.