The Coen Brother's Finest

Rating: 10/10 (23 November 2007)

Anton Chigurh: What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss.
Goddamn! The Coen Brothers are back and in full form. It seems as though 'No Country For Old Men' is the film to beat this year for the coveted Best Picture Oscar prize. Although it was a different film than I expected, it's every bit as powerful, tense, awkwardly funny and relevant as I had hoped, perhaps even more so. Based on Cormac McCarthy's critically acclaimed novel of the same name, 'No Country For Old Men' is a deeply symbolic and straight-forward story of the struggle between good and evil. The film opens with a flawlessly delivered monologue by the ever-so-great Tommy Lee Jones who portrays Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. Bell is a small-town sheriff in the state of Texas, and in his monologue he talks about how hardened and ruthless we've become as a society. "The crimes we see today...it's hard to even take it's measure. It's just all out war." mutters Bell. This monologue is the perfect setting for Llewyn Moss (Josh Brolin) who while hunting antelope in the desert stumbles upon half a dozen dead Mexicans, heroin and $2.4 Million. Being the road scholar he is, Moss figures no one will come looking for the moo-la if he snatches it. WRONG! Not only does the Mexican mafia and reputable bounty hunter / smart-ass Carson Welles (Woody Harrelson) pursue Moss, but also one of the most twisted, unpredictable and unreasonable villains in recent film history. His name is Anton Chirguh (Javier Bardem), and when he's not blowing innocent civilians' heads off with a cattle gun or flipping a coin to determine whether you live or die, he quietly observes everybody and everything around him.
'No Country For Old Men' is a triumph in film-making in that the film has no real flaws. Critics might pan it as "slow-moving" but that's essential in order to correctly build the tension for the key scenes. Most of the film is actually quite fast-paced with such nerve-wracking sequences it will have you on the edge of your seat with a knot in your stomach for a majority of it's runtime. But 'No Country's' quiet and subtle scenes are every bit as powerful as it's action-packed and suspenseful ones. This is due in large part to the screenplay. Supposedly following very closely to McCormac's novel, the Coen brothers deliver their finest work EVER from a screen writing perspective. Yes, it's even better than 'Fargo'. As for the Coen's directing and editing, it has never been smoother. The film's transitions are nothing short of breathtaking.
From an acting stand-point 'No Country For Old Men' is also incredible. The stand-out of the film is of course Javier Bardem as the ruthless homicidal maniac Chirguh. Just his facial expressions and body language is enough to make your skin crawl, and if that's not enough, he delivers every line including his catch-phrase "friend-O" with such brooding intensity and creepiness it makes you want to sink in your seat. Bardem is a lock for a Best Supporting Actor nomination this Oscar season, but his biggest competition is the two other key performances of the film. Josh Brolin who last week impressed me with his malicious turn in 'American Gangster' as a crooked cop, is the best he's ever been here in the role of Moss. Moss is such an unlikely hero in the sense he is kind of dumb, not very nice, makes stupid decisions and yet we still root for him to escape the drudges of the Mexican mafia and even worse, the wrath of Chirguh. Tommy Lee Jones I'd say is Bardem's biggest competition. With this and 'In the Valley of Elah', Jones has proved this year with these two performances that if anything he's getting better with age. Jones' monologues are flawlessly delivered like I previously stated, including his final one which left me with goose bumps at the end of the picture. Woody Harrelson is humorous in his limited role as a sharp-witted and over-confident bounty hunter, and Scottish actress Kelly MacDonald is phenomenal in her role as Moss' butter-brain wife. The film has a numerous amount of strong small performances including Garret Dillahunt as Bell's Deputy, Tess Harper as Bell's wife and the 'Office Space' stapler guy (Stephen Root), in a well-played dramatic role as a crime boss. Roger Deakins outdoes himself yet again with some awesome cinematography, and while quiet and subtle, the film's music score is haunting.
There is no other film this year that I can recommend as highly as 'No Country For Old Men'. There are times when it has you on the edge of your seat in suspense, there are times when it has you laughing violently at some of the darkly humorous scenes and through-out the entire 121 minutes it has you using your brain. There's a lot of symbolism and powerful metaphors in the film, but since I'm not writing a 5-page essay, I'll let you figure them out for yourself. With 'No Country For Old Men' the Coen Brothers have once again raised the bar on how outstanding and thought-provoking a simple crime-drama can be. Grade: A