A Career Peak for the Coen Brothers

Rating: 10/10 (21 April 2008)

The story that this movie is based upon, Cormac McCarthy's 2005-novel, reveals an America that's no country for anyone; and Tommy Lee Jones' character Sheriff Ed Tom Bell reflects the crime out-of-hand with wisdom, wit and maturity - as his narration over the deserted landscape tells his hours of darkness. And crime doesn't come any more out-of-hand, any darker or more horrifying than Anton Chigurh, masterfully played by Javier Bardem, an evil assassin which seems alienated from the rest of the world, looking at the other human beings as targets, intruders or no nothing. And crime floats over in the desert, as drug-dealing Mexicans executes deals-gone-bad, and this is where Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) comes in; as he discovers the $2 million in cash, he decides to take the money and run - who wouldn't? Drug-money belongs to nobody, and Moss becomes the film's moral dilemma, and Brolin gives the character the human heart the part needs; as we can put ourselves in his boots in this hellacious setting of crime and disgust. The great Roger Deakins, the director of photography, along with the Coen-brothers creates poetry here; not just one of 2007's most brilliant movies - but this is up there with Coen-classics as Fargo and the Big Lebowski. Rarely, a suspense-thriller makes us look into the abyss of our own making - No Country for Old Men does that, and it's one of the most delighted and tensioned experiences I've ever had in front off the screen.