interesting yet boring

Rating: 5/10 (20 September 2008)

I love the Coen Brothers for their Quirky comedies like Raising Arizona and Hudsucker Proxy, but I am always underwhelmed by their pulp dramas, like Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing and, most recently, No Country for Old Men.
I could tell early on I wasn't going to like this, but got sucked in by a brilliant, menacing performance by Javier Bardem. Like John Turturo in Miller's crossing, Bardem is an electrifying presence in a sea of blandness. Bardem's scenes are gripping and mesmerizing, but that leaves the 60% to 70% without him quite dull.
Structurally the movie is interesting. The movie relies on the audiences' familiarity with film structure to raise certain expectations and then thwarts those expectations one by one. It's an interesting idea, but while arguably what happens is more likely than what usually happens in movies, it's also less interesting and less clever. And since the movie as a whole still isn't realistic (and is also decidedly mannered), there doesn't seem to be much point in throwing in some realistic events to try and add some irony.
As mentioned above though, I never like Coen Brothers pulp dramas, so if you like the others, you ought to like this one too.