Overrated, but brilliant in parts !!!

Rating: 6/10 (10 April 2013)

Public opinion about this critically acclaimed movie seems rather dividedthere are people writing rave reviews about it, calling it one of the best movies ever and giving it full marksothers call it a vastly overrated movie and rate it 1 or 2 out of 10there are no in-betweens in this caseit is clearly a case of loved it or hated it One could argue then that such a film is the product of a genius mindthose intelligent enough to understand it are completely blown away by itand the others, the ones who fail to see the point ridicule it Having seen it, I tend to side with the latter group of people who found this movie a pseudo-intellectual product lacking any coherent purposeI felt the same about "No country for old men"many other reviewers have also compared it to NCFOM for the same reasons Okay I understand that whole movie is about the lifelong conflict between two equally ambitious and morally corrupt individualsDaniel's character is one of the most reprehensible I have seen in movieshe swindles innocent people and even uses his small adopted son as a mask to disguise the utter contempt he has for other human beingsI normally am captivated by portrayals of such people, who are fascinating in their own right, but in this case, I did not engage with his characterI could not really feel the menace or evil emanating and the fault is with the script writer, not the actor Most of the movie felt disjointedas if vast portions were cut out and left on the editing flooryou fail to understand the motivations behind the actions of different charactersit is not even possible to fill in with our own interpretations as the characters themselves were not fully developed For example, why does Paul Sunday go behind the backs of his own father and twin brother when he would have gained as much (or more) if he had not betrayed his own family? Though the character of Eli Sunday came across as quite irritating and self-serving from the start, it does not explain Daniel's intense hatred for himand that physical assault on Eli by Daniel was very difficult to digest due to this reasonEli does not seem to possess the natural charisma or business acumen exhibited by Daniel, so why does Daniel regard him as a lifelong threat and rival? Why does the impostor give himself away so readily after having gone through all that trouble, especially when he realizes how dangerous an individual Daniel is? Somehow all these things and many more did not gel in together when I watched the movie On a more positive note, the acting by all the main players was excellentDaniel Day-Lewis has a tremendous screen presence and he makes acting look ridiculously easy, he is that good! Most of the scenes were very well executedthe whole movie has been directed with the easy confidence that comes from a man who knows what he is good atthis is a very ambitious venture – powerfully acted and excellently directedbut somehow the whole product does not go down properly in the endthat's the reason I have mixed feelings about this movie