No Logic for the Third Act is more like it ...

Rating: Null/10 (17 February 2008)

Okay, the Coen brothers have made a near perfect film - O Brother Where Art Thou - but No Country for Old Men is a distinct misfire. It is terrific for the first 2/3rds of the film then simply goes off the rails. Unfortunately artsy-fartsy point-of-view choices up-end the story.
We come to the climax of the film (see other reviews for what came before) and Josh Brolin's character is being hit on by a pretty girl by a motel pool. Brolin's character has come to face down the hit-man after him for the money he opportunistically stole from a crime scene. This pretty girl says, "Sometimes you don't see it comin'." And the next shot is Josh Brolin's character - our film's protagonist - lying dead in a doorway - killed by much lesser characters (Mexican drug smuggler enforcers) as our second protagonist (Tommy Lee Jones's character) pulls in the scene. We see it from TLJ's point-of-view, and when we see Brolin's character's body laying there dead we don't even get a clear look at his face! Gimmicky!!!!!!! I'm at a loss as to why these assured and accomplished filmmakers, the Coen brothers, felt the need for this point-of-view switch and denied the audience the showdown. Third parties intervene and throw a monkey wrench into the works - we get it! It sucked the life out of the film - it was like that crappy ending fade-to-black on the Sopranos. What pretentious arty junk.
The whole Woody Harrelson subplot was useless and lent nothing to the story. Then the last three potential kills by the hit-man (played by Javier Bardem) we don't see the outcome. Since the character let the clerk at the roadside shop live early on we are left with some doubt as to whether he killed the girlfriend or the guy in the office. Lame. And a shame. This film started out aces and ended up a like a poker hand of a pair of 5s.