Another success for the Coens

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 2010)

The 'country' is the US-Mexico border (more specifically West Texas) and, for anyone involved in the drugs trade, they are unlikely to become 'old men' because the attrition rate is so high. It is clear then that this is a movie with a high body count but, in the hands of the talented Coen brothers (Joel and Ethan), the story of a drug deal gone wrong is told with a superlative mixture of drama and style that won the film four Academy Awards including Best Picture.
On this occasion, although the Coens as usual wrote as well as directed (and co-produced), they were adapting an original work, the 2005 novel by Cormac McCarthy. So they are McCarthy's characters but the Coens' choice of actors is superb.Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Woody Harrelson are excellent and Javier Bardem is - not withstanding a weird hairstyle - simply wonderful as the unstoppable killing machine with a fondness for coin tossing.
It is not always clear what is happening but the action quickly moves on, so one has no time to ponder on the confusion. For me, the real weakness of the movie is the conclusion which - while apparently faithful to the novel - is unsatisfyingly opaque.