No Accounting for Some Writers

Rating: 1/10 (17 March 2008)

I watched this film knowing it was written by the Coen brothers. I have enjoyed their films in the past. I sat through this waiting for an ending, but none ever came. There is no hope in this story. There is no message. Parts of it were just plain wrong. The film was laconic and in the end, I wondered what role Tommy Lee Jones's character had in it at all. Nothing he did had any effect on any of the events or the characters. What were they thinking? Have the Coen brothers just grown mean? What I am wondering more than anything is how on earth this won Best Screenplay? This is why I no longer watch the Academy Awards. It this is the best that Hollywood can muster, then the film industry is doomed.
Where O Brother, Where Art Thou was clever, No Country for Old Men was cruel. There is nothing noteworthy about this film. The acting acting sustains a rather mundane piece of scripting. I'm sure there are die hard fans who will sing praises from on high, but I was ultimately disappointed in the end, because there was no end. But it did make me think...about how much I will want to watch the next film with the Coen brothers' name.