Haunting and mesmerising

Rating: 10/10 (5 September 2016)

No country for old men is a film that, upon first viewing, will annoy and aggregate you. It seems boring, the ending drags on too long and then ends abruptly and there's random scenes that don't seem to have much bearing on the plot. However it will stay with you to the point you will feel compelled to watch it again. This is exactly what happened with me and on second viewing I loved it. I admired the risks the film took, the excellent performances(especially jabber bardem), the tense and taught film making and the scenes that annoyed me the most upon first viewing became my favourites. That final scene where Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) tells his wife of the two dreams he had punctuated by complete silence except for the ticking of a clock as the film cuts to black is a scene that will stay with me for a long time. The film is brimming with complexity as it explores the ideas of the criminal mind and how warped it has become and the good men of the world like Ed Tom become outmatched and feel the need to give up. It's depressing yet always compelling thanks to the coems marvellous writing and directing as no scene, no matter how slow, is boring or dull. Even when I first saw it and disliked it I was still stuck to the screen, there was something about it that always hooked my attention even when I wasn't enjoying it, that must be a sign of a truly great film. The Oscars defiantly made the right choice in 2008 when they awarded this film best picture and the coens there long overdue best director Oscar.