Typical Cormac McCarthy

Rating: 3/10 (6 January 2008)

I was extremely disappointed with this movie, as I have always been with Cormac McCarthy's writing. I am perplexed by the review score here. I think Cormac McCarthy takes the easy way out and as a result, the reader/view is left unsatisfied. I left 3 stars only for the first half of this movie.
Spoilers below: On a positive note, I was very taken with and absorbed in the story up until the main character was killed. I felt totally cheated that as a viewer I was robbed of what could've been a great scene. The entire movie thus far had built up to that moment and we were robbed of it.
Regarding the ending, I didn't mind that the question of whether the villain killed the wife went unanswered. I don't need everything spelled out for me, nor does the story need to resolve into a nice, neat, little package. HOWEVER, I think that Cormac McCarthy and/or filmmakers made some very basic mistakes--not the mark of a great writer, in my opinion: 1. The slaying of the main character did not translate well to film. This is a visual media after all. I image the showdown was quite spectacular. Too bad we didn't get to see it.
2. What was the point of Tommy Lee Jones' character? He had no real ties to the actual story line. Several of his scenes--including the last one--could have been cut with no sacrifice to the film's quality. Again, perhaps this didn't translate well from the book. But I see pretty much every scene with Tommy Lee Jones as fluff and padding.
3. The car accident at the end...well, again, what is the point? I see this as typical of McCarthy's writing. He has wasted my time.
I don't enjoy movies where the plot exactly unfolds as expected. I am a highly educated person--you don't need to connect all the dots for me--that is insulting. I'm also an avid reader. I totally enjoyed the movie up until the main character was found dead at the hotel. Up until that point, I was looking forward to seeing the movie through.
The car accident, most of the sheriff's pontification, and especially the last scene, are totally random, not well thought out, and irresponsible on the part of the author. I believe in leaving something to the imagination but I don't think that was accomplished here. There was no satisfaction at the end of this movie.
I do not see Cormac McCarthy as a reclusive genius. I see him as a writer who writes random thoughts without keeping his reader in mind, and he lucked out. Three stars are for the first half of the movie.