Is It Art? Absolutely! Did I Like It? Depends......

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2008)

I'm giving this film 9 out of 10 stars, because all the knowledgeable critics say this is a masterpiece, and I am an amateur reviewer with too much time on my hands, so what do I know? I may even post a second review once the dust in my brain settles......
I'm going to give one of my patented impressionistic reviews, random thoughts strung together by the sole coincidence of having sprouted from one individual brain! This film should have been a Western, rather than one set in c1980. I guess I'd have to ask Cormac McCarthy why he set the film in that era rather than something more suitable for the archetypes on display. It didn't have to be Mexican heroin, could have easily been some other contraband...but those were the choices made....
This is the first film that I have seen in a long while where certain audience members who actually come to movies to be entertained let off a chorus of "boos" as the film concluded with Tommy Lee Jones' somewhat droll and inconclusive narration. Life doesn't give us neat conclusions, so why should art be expected to? Too bad most high school lit classes teach us that good fiction has to have a beginning, middle and denouement that is satisfying to the reader/viewer! The Coens certainly do a great job of creating mood through their frame compositions, actors' direction, and quirky dialogue. And I do get Mr. Chigurh being a metaphor for unstoppable fate, and actually didn't have to read other reviews to understand this.
Bardem delivers a performance and character on par with Hannibal Lector.
Even though the Coens are playing with Western archetypes, they do leave room for the truly original. The set piece pitbull chase through the Rio Grande is well done, not scary to the audience mind you, though the audience can feel Mr. Brolin's fear as the beast approaches.
The selling of clothes is another metaphor that crops up repeatedly in this movie, through a number of characters. An assumption of identity, a reaching out for intimacy or caring? I'm not sure, but then art is supposed to push one's mind and leave room for ambiguity and multiple interpretations, rather than something that is paint-by-numbers and predictable.
Whatever the time setting, the Coens have succeeded in re-creating a mythical story with spiritual overtones, and a setting that is very disturbing, occasionally original, but hardly a crowd-pleaser. I look forward to the day when the Coens elevate their art further by telling an original story, not one written by another novelist. But this is an American film, where directors are interpreters of other people's 'material' rather than original storytellers...but I think Joel and Ethan Coen have it in them. Practice makes perfect!