Solid characters...but otherwise, too convoluted

Rating: 5/10 (20 June 2011)

No Country for Old Men was not my cup of tea. As much as I really wanted to love it, I just didn't. There were many aspects of the film that I thoroughly enjoyed, but overall, it just didn't click. For starters, I'm someone who loves background information. I want to know where these people are coming from, where they've been. This movie gave the most information about the Sheriff, who, until the final two minutes of the movie, truly made no impact on me at all.
There were two things in this movie that I loved; Carla-Jean and Llewellyn. They were just so typical that they made the rest of the film feel like it was very plausible. He was so resourceful that I was really sad to see him die. Usually when a character dies in a film it's because they have to for plot purposes or they deserve it. Llewellyn is able to escape an assassin, but can't shake off the Mexicans who are after the drug money. He wasn't killed by this unstoppable force of Anton Chigurh, he died out of carelessness. That right there is simply infuriating. As far as Carla-Jean is concerned, I found her to be a very intelligent and strong-willed individual. For example, when Anton gets her in the end and tells her to pick heads or tails, and she refuses, she isn't letting him win. I think that is key to the entire film. Even though these innocent people die and the malicious murderer escapes, at least he didn't win. Life will go on for him, but I know I'd be haunted by those final words Carla-Jean Moss muttered to me. Then again, I'm not a psychopathic murderer.
All in all, I feel like I missed something crucial. I didn't make connections that needed to be made, nor did I totally get the movie as a whole. Hopefully upon watching it a second time will build toward the movies' credibility as a whole.