No Country for Old Men: Review
Another Cinematic Masterpiece for Joel and Ethan Cohen
Stealing 2 million dollars is no easy task for Llewelyn (Josh Brolin) in the Cohen Brothers latest film. Especially when it belongs to Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem).
No Country for Old Men is not for the faint of heart. Dark and unyielding, No Country delivers as another Cohen brothers masterpiece. Already nominated for 4 Golden Globes, it is a definite Oscar contender. The Cohens’ direction is masterful and the photography (Roger Deakins A.S.C) is just breathtaking.
The film is based on a book by Pulitzer Prize winner, Cormac McCarthy and is set against the sprawling landscape of Texas. The story begins with the arrest of drifter, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem). Everything seems normal at the police station until Anton (handcuffed mind you) takes the trooper down in a deadly stranglehold that would make the most virile wrestler a bit squeamish.
Across town, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is surveying the countryside for antelope when he spots cars strewn across the pasture. After a closer inspection, Llewelyn sees several murdered men. Apparently, victims of a drug deal gone bad. Llewelyn is not a bad guy, just an opportunist. Besides, finding two million in cash is nothing to sneeze at. He puts his naïve wife, Carla Jean (Kelly McDonald) on the next bus out of town and goes on the lamb with the money.
What Llewelyn doesn’t know is the drug money belongs to Anton-and he is relentless. Both men instinctively try to predict the other’s next move, like players in a game of chess. Along the way, Anton murders anyone who gets in his way and his choice of weapon is not an assault rifle, but rather something one might find at a slaughterhouse.
Sheriff Ed Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is brought into the chase when the body count piles up from Anton’s rampage. As Sheriff Bell quips later on in the film, “I feel overmatched.” Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood, Assassination of Jesse James) sparkles as Deputy Wendell and matches Tommy Lee Jone’s unique brand of Texas dead-pan humor. Both actors are a good comic duo.
Jones infuses Sheriff Bell with a sad, calm resolution that his time is over. Bell approaches the deaths of the murdered victims with an air of resigned helplessness. He is either too late to save them or powerless to stop Anton’s killing spree. Javier Bardem is magnificently frightening in this film. He’s unlike the typical gunslinger. With an air of quiet ferocity, Anton recruits victims like a bird attacking prey. He is a psychopath.
Llewelyn is a good ole boy, with his own sense of justice and we want him to win. Josh Brolin is equally compelling as Llewelyn and Oscar worthy. It’s hard to believe that this is the same guy who starred in The Goonies (still a great 80’s flick). The film also boasts solid supporting performances from Woody Harrelson (Carson Wells) and Tess Harper (Loretta Bell).
The Coen brothers don’t give movie-goers much time to get comfortable in their seats. The dramatic tension keeps you on the edge and the minimal dialogue is razor sharp. The movie is a metaphor for isolation, and loneliness nestled against the backdrop of Texas. It’s about aging men relinquishing their youthful exuberance to gravity and young men who ruthlessly, and sometimes violently pursue power. It’s a good movie that is refreshingly unpredictable in its scope. See it twice.
