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Rating: 6/10 (31 January 2008)

Joel and Ethan Coen's 'No Country for Old Men' has proved to be one of the year's most critically acclaimed films, with a raft of Oscar nominations adding to its apparent lustre. On viewing though, one has to ask what all the fuss is about.
The story contrives to be straightforward and opaque at the same time; trailer-trash Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) happens upon a corpse and a bag full of money in the Texan desert. As always happens in the movies, he decides to keep it for himself, thus attracting the attention of the extremely sinister Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem sporting an equally sinister pudding bowl haircut). The first three-quarters of the film are essentially about Moss trying to evade Chigurh's murderous clutches, whilst folksy but ineffectual Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) follows two steps behind. This section of the film works well as a thriller, with some tense and exciting scenes as Chigurh relentlessly pursues the resourceful Moss. However, much remains rather unclear; for instance the origin of the money is never really made clear and a bounty-hunter type character (a nice cameo from Woody Harrelson) enters and exits the story quickly and rather pointlessly.
Had 'No Country' continued in the thriller vein for its two hour running time, then it would have been a strong entry in the genre, but those Oscar nods would still have been rather mystifying. However the film literally loses the plot in the last quarter, with the abrupt, off-screen death of a central character and a slow, meandering and ultimately rather pointless finale. All in all, 'No Country For Old Men' must be one of the more disappointing and over-rated films of recent years.