Very entertaining movie, but sometimes confusing.....

Rating: 9/10 (14 March 2008)

For example: When Tommy Lee Jones (TLJ) is talking to that old El Paso sheriff, the sheriff mentions how it was strange that Chigurh had returned to a sealed off crime scene where a hotel clerk had been killed and that Chigurh had then killed a retired Army Colonel. What was that in reference to? I know there was an earlier scene where a hotel clerk was killed, but there was nothing about a later visit to that hotel or the killing of someone else there, let alone a Colonel. Also, when TLJ then returns to the El Paso motel that night, it appears that Chigurh may be hiding behind the room door (TLJ thinks he is). I took it that the Coen's wanted to give that impression for dramatic purposes, but that he was actually standing outside the motel in the dark just watching TLJ make his entry so that he could escape unnoticed with the money (I think the book has him watching TLJ's character from his car). Finally, the El Paso motel a/c vent that presumably held the hidden money that Chigurh found was so damn small that it wouldn't have held much of the stash, let alone the case that Josh Brolin's character was hauling it around in. That shot of the tiny a/c vent really blew it in my view. Despite some flaws, the movie was excellent. I didn't even mind the unresolved ending since it is more likely the reality of such situations.