Brilliant for most part, but ending is weak and diminishes the film overall.

Rating: 7/10 (25 January 2009)

The Coen brothers can be brilliant or terrible; this film belongs fortunately to the Fargo side of their movie making. The plot is crisp, violent, snappy, and intensely dark, yet the pacing gives everything an exuberance that belies the overall material.
This is a film about evil for the sake of evil. The acting is excellent, the beaten down cop on the case (Tommy Lee Jones), the very very bad guy (Bardem) the waster (Josh Brolin) who finds the drugs money, and his girlfriend(Kelly Macdonald) who will become a more significant character towards the end of the movie. The final scene is bitterly disappointing though, the film just drifts way. The novel I believe has this ending, but oh boy it doesn't work here. It is a shame, because it robs the film of greatness.
I think the key scene in this movie is were the girlfriend comes face to face with remorseless evil(Javier Bardem). She realises she has been betrayed, and this gives the movie an understated but powerful emotion punch. Shame about the films ending though because it softens the harsh bleakness of the movies overall message. You will long remember Bardems performance, but the movie has more to offer than that though, but it needed a more dramatic, and better thought out ending to make the films other qualities more apparent.