another 10 on the crapmeter

Rating: 1/10 (7 May 2008)

Something strange is happening in the town of Marfa. This movie is just as bad as There Will Be Blood. What is going on?
The above line has more story, more interest, more movement, than either of these two movies.
To be fair to No Country For Old Men, the ghost-like assassin character is well drawn, well clothed, and well played. This actor has a monumental face that is a delight to the camera. His voicing is dead-perfect. There are some good shots of bare, open, sun-shot highway, too, that just hit the right note. Also, 70's cars are cool.
What's wrong: Well... No story. After a nice tease of a set up. It started like a story, but nobody really did anything that made sense.
You have a man on the run; good stuff so far. He's got a girl, that's good too. You see their home, you believe his character, great. I'm on his side. Then comes a remorseless, unstoppable, killer, not of this world, who seeps over everything like a black cloud of death. Cool.
Then you realize you're following the wrong character- this movie isn't about the prey, or the predator either.. it's about the superfluous sheriff, remorselessly pursued by his own black cloud of getting too old and not giving a damn. He struggles weakly against the approaching cloud and then philosophically gives in to it.
In the mean-time we watch other people offer themselves up to the black cloud of the assassin. Eventually, at no particular point, the silent black credits slam in.
The above makes this movie sound like it might be entertaining, or at least about something. It isn't.
The sheriff has exactly one great, topical, line. While dismounting his horse at a scene of great carnage - the desolate big-time drug and money exchange gone bad - he adds a fillip to his deputy's half-successful attempt at manly-lawman-understatement of the grisly scene: In response to the deputy's comment the sheriff says "well there does appear to have been something of a glitch.." - or something like that.
It's so good, that it is almost enough to save the sheriff, but , sadly, it is not enough.
Also, while the movie looks like Texas, many of the characters seem a Texan parody of the flatest, thinest sort.
I thought the woman motel clerk was wonderful. And have no quarrel with the Scottish girl's accent or portrayal as the young texan wife. The husband played well enough, too. But for what.
This movie has a very bad spirit, and nothing to justify it. May it's own black cloud hasten to catch up to it soon.