Same old sh** but done much better
While out hunting deers in the desert, unemployed Texan Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles onto the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong. He manages to get away with the abandoned loot (two million dollars in a suitcase) with only a few scrapes, and plans to go on the run with the money and wife Carla (Kelly Macdonald) in tow. Unbeknownst to him, a psychopathic assassin, the sheriff, and Woody Harrelson are hot on his trail.
Kudos to the Coen brothers for taking what is essentially a common premise for many Knight Rider and Murder, She Wrote episodes (actually it’s from a book by Cormac McCarthy) and improved it significantly. No Country For Old Men is a million times better a thriller than its TV predecessors, using drawn out shots and deadening silence to make its action sequences scary and exciting. The “hero” is also a vast improvement from the usual bungling ones, who puts his grey cells to better use here. For example, Moss waits for several minutes to make sure an armed bad guy is already dead before approaching him, which is what most of us with a working brain would do as well. Only action superheroes go in with guns blazing. Javier Bardem plays the unforgettable and terrifying antagonist Anton Chigurh, who is like the Terminator and Hannibal Lecter rolled into one. He carries a unique weapon that blows. There is a moral lesson thrown in there for good measure; something about the world becoming too unfathomably evil and violent for old timers like Tommy Lee Jones’ Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, hence the title.
Unfortunately, this is also one of those movies that does not resolve its storyline to everybody’s satisfaction. Of course, reality is like that, delivering cruel fates to individuals who don’t deserve it, no matter how smart or important they may be. Like William Munny once said in Unforgiven, “deserve’s got nuthin’ to do with it.” But I still think the Coens could have taken some of the sting away if only they showed how it went down in room 114 near the end. The abrupt finale (even more so than Cloverfield) won’t go down well with a number of people.
I still think it’s a solid, enjoyable thriller, and the Coens deserve a pat on the back. Someone should give them a money-making action franchise already, like the Nolan brothers have with Batman. Seriously, they’re pretty good action directors, and would blow minds with their own interpretations of John McClane or James Bond. Frankly, the Oscar nominations for No Country seems a bit of an overkill, but I might revise my opinion after I see the rest of the Best Picture nominees. - BMF
Written and directed by Ethan and Joel Coen (The Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty). Stars Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, and Kelly Macdonald. Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. |
