Superb! Excellent! Fantastic!

Rating: 9/10 (26 November 2007)

OK. Cormac McCarthy is one of my favorite writers and the Coen brothers are my favorite filmmakers. No Country for Old Men is one of my favorite books and the deck was stacked before I saw it tonight. Rather than gush on with lavish kudos, let me just sum it up. Everything works. The action is fast-paced; the dialog is sparse, ala Cormac McCarthy; the layouts are fantastic in their meager presentation; the costuming is minimal; the music is not missed; the tension comes through the exquisite timing; there are no wasted moments, no wasted film footage and the transitions between scenes move like a well oiled clock. The acting is excellent, from the extras to the main characters. The scenery is believable and while there are some bloody moments there's no resorting to hitting the viewer with a lot of gore. Javier Bardem's ritualistic understated killer is chilling; Woody Harrelson's Wells is cocky, overconfident and tragic; Josh Brolin's character is pragmatic but outclassed; Tommy Lee Jones's Sheriff is a salt of the earth prototype-- everything works. Leaving the theater, I heard the grumblings about the "non-ending." To those comments and also to those included in these reviews here, all I can say is, it is an ending. It's just not the one you would expect. Cormac McCarthy and the Coen brothers aren't John Wayne.