Review: No Country for Old Men

I'm back at the blog after a hiatus of sorts due to a heavy workload the first part of December. Thanks for tuning back in.

One of the things I look forward to the most about Christmas break each year is the opportunity to see a few movies guilt-free. (You know, without feeling like there are a lot of classes to prepare, papers to grade, or what not.) I've seen three in the past week--Charlie Wilson's War, National Treasure 2 and No Country for Old Men. Of those three, the final one is by far the most effecting. The other two were entertaining, but have not stuck around in my head the way this one has.

I've only seen two other movies by the Coen brothers: The Ladykillers (which was definitely a waste of time) an O Brother, Where Are Thou (which was terrific, and features one of the most popular movie soundtracks of all time, and for good reason). Since I don't have much to compare it to in terms of their other directing efforts, I'll judge the movie on its own merits.

The plot is fairly basic: Llewelyn Moss (played by Josh Brolin, in a career-defining role) is a slightly dumber than average West Texan, and while out hunting he stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong, complete with several bodies, a truck full of drugs and a suitcase with $2 million. He takes the money but makes a poor decision in returning to the crime scene later that night. A group of Mexicans find him and try to hunt him down. They also send after him Anton Chigurh (played by Javier Bardem, in another career-defining role), a ruthless killing machine whose weapon of choice is not a pistol or rifle, but a cattle stun gun attached to an air compressor. The rest of the movie involves Llewelyn trying to evade Chigurh, and the cast of characters who become involved, including Llewelyn's wife Carla Jean (Kelly McDonald, who I never would have guessed was Irish based on her excellent fake Texan accent) and Ed Tom Bell, the sheriff (in an amazing performance by Tommy Lee Jones). I realized later that Tommy Lee Jones' character both opens and closes the film, almost like a bookend.

I know the plot sounds a bit strange and violent, but the violence is actually much less than I expected. What makes the movie great is several things. First is the acting and dialogue. The movie is based on the novel by Cormac McCarthly, and although I haven't read it I understand that passages from the movie are taken directly from the novel. I can't recall the last time I experienced character dialogue that was so well-written and delivered, particularly through Tommy Lee Jones' and Javier Bardem's characters. There is a great scene near the middle where Anton (Bardem) goes into a little store in the middle of nowhere and begins the challenge the owner, an older man who doesn't have a clue who he's dealing with. Anton is a man with no virtue--pure evil--but he decides who he kills (some of the time) with the flip of a coin...and asks his victims to call it. If his would-be victims live, it's by pure luck, not by mercy. I absolutely love the dialogue exchange in this scene as the two men get into a word game that really makes no sense, but that's not the point.

Second, and more importantly, is the underlying theme. This is really a nihilistic sort of movie, meaning basically that evil in the world lives on, and there is nothing we can do about it. Of course, I disagree with the theme on a philosophical level because it doesn't square with the Christian faith, but the filmmakers have put on screen a villian completely on par with Hannibal Lecter and Darth Vadar. Actually, I never thought Darth Vadar was that scary because his costume just looks dumb. But Anton Chigurh, that's another story. Here is a portrayal of a man with no conscience, no mercy, no compassion--only the desire to impose his will upon those who get in his way.

I would highly recommend the movie to anyone who likes well-made movies and great acting. It's not an entertaining movie per se, but it's a great film. It does take its time telling the story, and afterwards I realized there is no traditional music score to speak of, but this only adds to the sparseness (much like the Texas landscape that is featured so prominently). All the loose ends are not tied up, and it doesn't dumb down the plot to the lowest common denominator--I'm looking at you, National Treasure 2--but that's a good thing in my book. I predict it will win a trophy or two at the Oscars.