the Coen brothers are trying to be too over-smart for this genre

Rating: 7/10 (30 September 2008)

I do like the Coen brothers movies, including some of the previous ones which were not commercial successes and were not so well received by the critics. Surprsingly, it is this film which seems to be universally acclaimed by critics and received high enough grades to make it in the IMDb Top 100 that left me with a partial feeling of un-satisfaction.
On the good side the film really catches the attention with a strong visual style, and with a sophisticated structure which makes the multiple cat-and-mouse games played by the characters extremely enjoyable. It also allows for a tremendous performance by Javier Bardem for which he received a well-deserved Oscar, and another solid one from tommy Lee Jones - he may be somehow stereotypically cast lately, but he fits so well in the stereotype and becomes better as he gets older like god whiskey I dare say :-)
On the bad side the film tries to play a little too much on the over-smartness side. I did not read the book, so I was left to guess key pieces of the action, and yes, life is full of mysteries, but I could detect no logic in how the Coen brothers decided what to leave out - these just looked like intentional wholes in the plot, obviously intentional because these guys know too well how to tell a story. The ending which was intended to be symmetrical with the beginning was supposed to give a different perspective to the whole story, but it did not really make me vibrate either. It is maybe because the combination of the genres of violent gangsters conflict, greed and hate motivated pursuits and the western setting do not really rime in my mind with the kind of philosophy Tommy Lee Jones' character was articulating in words at the end. Some more simplicity would have yielded into an even better film, IMHO.