Coen's best film since Fargo.

Rating: 8/10 (3 February 2010)

There are some things you should know about Old Country for Old Men. It is based upon the book by Pulitzer Prize winner Cormac McCarthy. It is directed by the Coen Brothers. It stars Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem, (Sea Inside, Dancer Upstairs). It has been nominated for Best Picture for the Golden Globes and one would expect the same for the Oscars.
Put simply, this is the Coen's best film since Fargo. This is a tense, uncomfortable film for all the right reasons, it's the effect most thrillers should but rarely offer. And yet there are subtle elements which lift it above the level of thriller which may leave fans of straight fare confused. To say more would be too revealing.
Typically for the Coen brothers, it's very violent, but this only adds weight to Bardem's extraordinary performance, alone worth the admission price.
The photography of the Southern American desert is graceful but spectacular and sits non intrusively alongside the narrative.
'Rising' star Josh Brolin (Into the Blue, Goonies) is great to watch and you'll be pulling for him even though he's risking it all for the cash. Tommy Lee Jones plays Tommy Lee Jones in a role not too dissimilar, in feel at least, to his directorial Three Burials.
There are other performances of note, including Woody Harrelson and Kelly McDonald (Trainspotting), but this is a showdown between Brolin and Bardem, with the Coens' hunching eagerly behind both. It's one of cinema's most enthralling battles.
What else do you need to know? Zilch.
(Review written at time of release).