Complete classic

Rating: 9/10 (30 November 2007)

While it would be somewhat accurate to describe No Country for Old Men as a "guy movie," it would probably be understating the case; this is more like *the* guy movie. The Coen Brothers bring suitably low levels of sentiment and optimism to their remarkably faithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's grim novel, but they more than make up for it with a gripping pace, intensely visceral action sequences, and a worldview as bleak and unsparing as the out-of-the-way locations in which its events transpire. Set along the Texas-Mexico border in 1980, the movie chronicles an increasingly bloody cat-and-mouse game that begins when local good old boy Llewelyn Moss makes off with a suitcase full of drug money and doesn't end until a series of sleepy locales have been turned into battlefields.
The novel on which this film is based--like McCarthy's work in general--deals largely with the behavior of men turned loose from civilizing influences, and the Coen brothers manage to stay true to McCarthy's core themes while at the same time creating a cinematic rendering of the darker side of our existence that's nothing short of awe-inspiring in its totality. There's nothing remotely glamorous or stylish about the film's setting or its characters, but that little fact doesn't prevent the movie from being a visual stunner of the highest order. In form and style No Country for Old Men is as much a Western as it is a thriller, and the Coen brothers here take the expansive cinematography and murky morality of Sergio Leone's classic revisionist Westerns to their logical extremes. The atmosphere throughout is stark and dingy, shot through with the darkest of humor and blunt, uncompromising depictions of frequently graphic violence.
While I found the direction and the remarkably seamless adaptation of the source material to be the real stars of this film, that should hardly be taken to mean the acting isn't uniformly top-notch, as all of the principals involved throw themselves convincingly into roles that aren't exactly typical major-release fare. Josh Brolin makes a solid and relatable lead as Moss, and Tommy Lee Jones is more than competent as grizzled Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in a role that was practically written for him, but the most indelible figure figure here is easily Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh, the menacing human Terminator who leaves death and destruction wherever he goes. The hulking Bardem certainly makes for a physically imposing presence, but it's chiefly his emotionally blank performance that turns Chigurh into one of recent cinema's most memorable villains, a psychotic, remorseless, yet amusingly philosophical killer whose humanity is tenuous at best.
It's evident right away that No Country for Old Men is no ordinary thriller--from its jaw-dropping opening scene, it picks up a momentum and tension that it doesn't abandon until its conclusion. There are no wasted moments in this movie; from beginning to end it's masterpiece of atmosphere and setting. To create a film this intelligently and carefully crafted, and gut-wrenching and raw at the same time, is certainly not an accomplishment to be taken lightly, and my hats go off to the Coen brothers for pulling it off. In the competition for the title of best film of 2007, it's going to be hard to top this one.