... or young men, either.

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2008)

Anyone who despaired of the Coen Brothers after "Intolerable Cruelty" and "The lady-killers" need worry no longer; they have returned, not just to their finest form, but perhaps with their finest film. This time they have gone to an established work of fiction, unlike previous original screenplays, although it seems to me Cormac McCarthy's novel was written for them. In many respects this is a perfect companion piece to their own "Fargo", (they would make a splendid double-bill); they both deal in cold-hearted killers, in botched crimes, they both have a philosophical sheriff whose wisdom, nevertheless, seems to emanate from fortune-cookies and they share the same grisly sense of humour. For while "No Country for old Men" is a palm-sweatingly, seat-edgingly exciting movie from its opening shot, it is also very funny in that very dark Coen Brothers fashion.
The story is simplicity itself and there isn't a single lean moment in the film or a single redundant shot in sight. Josh Brolin is the trailer-trash hunter who stumbles on a drugs deal gone horribly wrong. The dealers have massacred each other leaving a suitcase of money behind. Brolin skips off with the dough pursued by Javier Bardem's psycho-killer while Tommy Lee Jones is the sheriff caught somewhere in the middle. So it's a road movie and a chase movie from the word go and it's unbearably tense, yet it transcends the formulaic restrictions of the thriller genre to become something of a meditation on the savagery of human nature. Bardem kills not because he has to but because he wants to; killing is almost ingrained in his bone marrow. Jones wants to pull out of his job as a law enforcer because he feels the law can no longer be enforced. He has become despairing for his country and for those who inhabit it.
None of this is treated in any way heavy-handedly by the Coens but with humour and an entertainer's brio. Sure, they make us think but not at the expense of a good tale well told. You hang on every word and you wait expectantly on the next set of events to unfold and when Bardem's on screen you really do feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. His is a superb performance, showy certainly but full of subtleties and unexpected little twists as well and he is matched both by Brolin's weary hunter and Jones' even wearier sheriff. But then, as in all of the Coen's films, all the performances down to the tiniest part are beautifully judged and played. This could turn out to be the most deserving Best Picture winner in years.