My review

Rating: 8/10 (14 March 2013)

In the Coen brothers' beautifully terse and achingly intense No Country For Old Men, we learn very early on that a drug deal has gone wrong on the eerily flat plains of southern Texas, leaving no surivors and only a briefcase full of money. Through the stolid eyes of Josh Brolin, who delivers an effortless performance as the overconfindent Llewelyn Moss, we see the aftermath of this carnage and we also see a desperate man with a mountain of debt snatch something he does not fully comprehend, as much as he likes to pretend he does. Tightly raut scenes of almost morbid silence such as this one fascinate almost as much as Javier Bardem's nightmare-inducing turn as psychopathic hit-man Anton Chigurgh, who is sent to retrieve the drug money by any means necessary, but all he needs is his trusty cattlegun friend-o. Any lesser movie would seemingly desolve into cat and mouse territory here with shoot outs and standoffs galore, but nothing is ever quite what it seems in this bleak but mesmerizing country, as Tommy Lee Jones shows up as a soon to be retired sheriff, and commands the screen by pumping the drama with morality and reality, not just lead.