Superb!

Rating: 10/10 (25 April 2011)

I have just amused myself reading through the (long) list of goofs. Fortunately none of them spoiled this, exceptional, movie for me! The Coen Bros excel in working the landscape into their films. Both in Fargo and No Country the vast expanses dominate the characters, but without dominating the film. Contrast that with Brokeback Mountain, where the outdoors overrode the story IMO to the extent it became a travelogue.
Casting is so important in any film: even one actor looking out of place can spoil the whole exercise. Not here, though: each and every one looks and feels the part. Jones - a much under-appreciated actor - is simply superb. His long, pensive pauses are exquisitely delivered. Bordem is so quietly menacing you almost have to watch from behind the sofa: his psychopathic disinterest in his many slayings should be a part of every budding actor's course notes.
I would never have placed Harrelson as a hit man in this sort of movie but he also plays the part as if he's been killing all his life, in a casual way. Brolin, too, knows the ranch life and that shows.
It's so pleasant to see a modern day film made with a beginning, middle and .......end? Well, yes: that's the whole point - there IS no end to the drugs and the violence. The "end" (which is really just the point where the movie itself stops, because the losing battle continues) has the killer limping off down a suburban street and the sheriff contemplating a quiet, definitely less stimulating, retirement. Fade to black.
No question: NCFOM sets the gold standard for this genre.