Uncomfortable, yet thrillingly essential viewing

Rating: 8/10 (13 September 2008)

Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (the Coen brothers), No Country for Old Men (NCFOM) is a simple story that expands itself stunningly, and unloads skip-a-heart-beat action scenes, controlled and scarily realistic acting, and some of the most tense dialogue scenes in recent years.
Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, it tells the story of Moss, a retired Vietnam soldier, who has a strange yet eerie lifestyle and wife (brilliantly played by Kelly MacDonald, who puts on a continuously convincing West Texas accent). However, when Moss stumbles upon $2 million, he gets himself caught in a chase against 'the devil reincarnated', Anton Chigurh. Played by Javier Bardem, who won a supporting actor Oscar for his role, Chigurh is a fate-driven phycopathic killer, who mercilessly kills anyone brutally (and graphically) in his path, except for those saved by the fate of a coin. Bardem is so spine-chillingly complexed and terrifying that not even the blisteringly hot desert landscapes can warm this film.
And that's the main, if not only, problem with NCFOM. It is so unmercifully depressing and disturbingly eerie that it offers little redemption in return for the audiences pounding hearts. The kills are so graphic and violent, that your stomach scrunches up and the acid at the bottom swishes around.
That said, NCFOM is so brilliantly acted and engagingly heart-thumping that it doesn't need much remorse, nor a score (only 16 minuted of minimalist music)! Superbly and patiently shot and developed NCFOM is one of the year's best thrillers/horrors.