Great expectations, but left me slightly disappointed

Rating: 7/10 (13 August 2008)

I'm a huge fans of the Coens and have enjoyed every one of their films, going back to Blood Simple. Having read rave reviews which referred to this as 'their masterpiece', my expectations were very high, and possibly this is why I was disappointed  maybe I was expecting too much. Make no mistake, this is a very good film, in a different league from the majority of thrillers. The cast selection is very interesting and the performances excellent. Tommy Lee Jones is at his best, and Javier Bardem is a truly memorable villain, something really special. The cinematography is excellent, typical Coen standard. The story starts well, a tense mystery and sure enough the suspense builds. So why my disappointment? Well, as others have said, the latter part of the movie doesn't quite live up to the promise of the first half and the ending is something of an anti-climax. The movie doesn't quite fulfil initial expectations. It seems to finish rather than end. Other critical comments are that Woody Harrelson is rather wasted, a relatively brief 'walk on' appearance. Some of the dialogue I found very difficult to understand. The characters have a tendency to mumble  OK, I'm a Brit and maybe my problem in not understanding 'Texan'. On reflection, the ingredient I missed most was the (black) humour, found in Fargo for example. See this film by all means and you're hopefully enjoy it but I don't believe it to be quite the masterpiece that many have said, just very good, which is better than most productions manage.