Its probably worth watching, but terribly anticlimactic

Rating: 1/10 (7 June 2008)

I live on a small island. The local cinema screens one movie a week. Last week it was There Will Be Blood. After the open ending, half the audience was upset and deemed the movie 'bad'. This week it was No Country For Old Men. And this time, the audience actually booed. That's saying a lot for a place where cinema is a luxury.
There's not much I can add, or say better than anyone else who has written negative reviews for this movie. I'm not giving this movie a bad review simply because I don't like the Coen brothers (as some appear to have), and nor do I blame them specifically for the plot, since it is apparently remarkably faithful to the novel. However, the story was frustrating, a lot of what little dialog there was was pointless, and the ending made me even angrier than the conclusion of There Will Be Blood.
That said, the first half of the movie - where the majority of the suspense lay - was quite enjoyable. The vast arid landscapes were stunning and the initial suspense was genuinely masterful. Unfortunately, beyond the first half, what little suspense was left became formulaic, the beautiful desert vistas gave way to suburbia and the plot holes became ever larger. Some liken this movie to Donnie Darko and Eternal Sunshine On A Spotless Mind, saying you need to watch it several times to get its full value. Personally, I don't think I'd be able to watch it a second time.
But I guess that my biggest gripe lies with the so-call critics. All the official reviews I've come across paint this movie as something brilliant that simply MUST be seen. Yet countless online reviews tell of people storming out of the cinemas, and my own experience has proved (to me at least) the same thing: what may be a wet dream to enlightened cinema critics is not necessarily something that an ordinary audience will find entertaining.
My verdict: proceed with caution. It may be worth watching, but don't expect anything in the way of plot resolution, or any satisfaction in the conclusion.