True Evil and Fate

Rating: 9/10 (12 November 2007)

Watching how Bardem's character executes his role in this story is a full time job. It requires your attention and your emotional participation as you fear getting too close, but you can't avoid looking, even as we know what his mission is, and how horrid his actions can be.
There is much more to this very good film, but at the very center of a disintegrating society is evil, and how it takes different shapes, pulling men into obsessive chases for money and possible escape from a miserable existence. There are very few opportunities to sit and ponder what is going on, as we know it already, and little by little, we are given several opportunities to see how the different participants eventually meet their fate.
The directors/producers/writers have managed to develop a style where sometimes style took over substance, that not being the case anymore, as this time heart and soul are always present. We are fully aware of the plight of every person who has come into contact with the drug money. We might not support their goals, but we still feel for them, as the angel of death approaches. Bardem's character is a puzzle, one that we might might not want to put together, he is a very repulsive creation, one that performs a function without much of a heart. It is possible that he might never had one. He toys with his victims and shows outright disdain for them, giving them choices, much like an angry God would. Eventually he derives pleasure from what he does, and even when he loses in his game of chance, he knows he has tortured his victim just enough to scar them for life. Bardem's monster is truly impressive, as much of it is never explained to us. He keeps him human enough to show how truly evil he is. He is not a perfect executioner, as he encounters several bumpy moments along the road.
Lee Jones is very interesting but remains secondary to the two people in the main conflict, as he watches and tries to become more involved in solving the situation, only to discover that his actions might not amount to anything fruitful. In the end, we see his frustrations as his life has been reduced to a domesticity that might be worse than facing Bardem's criminal. The worse thing is that such encounter would have been more rewarding than anything else that ever happened to him, and there is one moment in this story when we develop a bit of frustration, as we see that this might never happen.
The ending is anti-climatic as we see that life doesn't necessarily follow the standards rule of a Hollywood movie. This film will not make everyone happy as much of what is expected never happens. The level of tension is heart stopping, and then, it never seems to have a pay off. There is a lesson to be learned, or is it just a lesson to be reviewed? It never quite explains itself.