A tense and absorbing Masterpiece

Rating: Null/10 (2 October 2009)

No Country For Old Men was deserving of all the praise and awards it got back in 2007. While I did root for other films of that year to win Best Picture, like Atonement or There Will Be Blood, with a repeat viewing of NCFOM, this is just under those films, if not right on par with them. The screenplay is very meaningful and thought-provoking as it is tense and thrilling. This is a Western thriller, a subtle but very absorbing film. The lack of a soundtrack really adds to the film's tension, and we are more concentrated on all of the little things that happen. The Coen brothers have only made one other film in the past that had really surprised me, and that was Fargo. While I still am not sure which is better, I think both are Masterpieces and deserve to be classics for years to come.
The performances in the film are strong. Most notably, Javier Bardem. His performance won him an Oscar, and very deserved. He gives a creepy and subtly controlled performance, and makes a villain like no other since Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (and since then, Heath Ledger has also joined that list). Kelly Macdonald and Tommy Lee Jones were also pretty amazing, the former giving one of my favorite supporting female performances of 2007. Josh Brolin is strong, but his role requires less of a big acting challenge than Jones or even Macdonald I would think. Woody Harrelson was great in his small screen time, and he made the best of it. The cinematography is perfect, as you would think from the guy who also shot the amazingly beautiful The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
What I also love about this film is that simple meaning of violence in this country. The film's opening monologue by Jones, and his closing scene proves that this really was his story, and also the reason for the unresolved plots. While I was one of the few that was frustrated by the final scene in the film, I can truly appreciate it now. No Country For Old Men is a great film, powerful and absorbing!