Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
Javier "Fuckin'" Bardem
Tommy Lee Jones
Josh Brolin
Woody Harrelson
Directed by:
Joel Coen
Ethan Coen
Rhonda Byrne would be proud. In 2007, the universe decided to give back to all the nice little intellectuals that ate their veggies and read Joyce without flinching and gave us something that couldn't miss: a Coen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy. The most gritty, austere writer I know, adapted to the screen by the most gritty, meticulous and intellectual pair of directors America has to offer (except maybe for Jim Jarmusch, who also got inspired by McCarthy for the bombastic Dead Man). As soon as I heard about it I knew. I knew that it would be the bomb. No Country For Old Men was a tank aiming at a cow in a hallways. It couldn't miss.
For those who haven't seen the movie or read the book, No Country For Old Men is the story of Llewelyn Moss (Brolin), who found a suitcase with two million dollars inside on the site of a botched drug deal. Bringing water to one of the dying gangsters, Moss will be spotted and will have to flee, leaving his truck and identification behind. That will send on his trail psychopath extraordinaire Anton Chigurh (Bardem) who will stop at nothing to leave with the whole sum. Caught in the crossfire of these two dangerous men, Carson Wells (Harrelson), Carla Jean Moss (Kelly MacDonald) Llewelyn's wife and sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Jones) who knows pertinently that he's over his head in this case of a terrible violence.
The trademark of Coen brothers is to study their frame, to pack it as much as they can. They build every single one of them with great patience, only to turn their actors loose later. They let their cast run wild and give them the time to make a lasting impression on the camera. Their shots are long and they make time a variable in the equation (the pertinent use of time is often the mark of good directors). The aesthetic of No Country For Old Men is another bold choice. The Coen brothers go cliché heavy. Llewlyn Moss is a beer-drinking cowboy with a mustache and a stetson, Anton Chigurh doesn't look like he has the ability to disappear in any sort of crowd and Ed Tom Bell is a stereotypical small town sheriff that built a life outside his job. And somehow, it works. The magic of the Coen brothers make for a gritty, graphic novel atmosphere. Strong images that will haunt viewers.
I couldn't review this movie without talking about the work of Javier Bardem. Often used as Resident Sexy, Ethan & Joel Coen did a fine job in dehumanizing him. They made him everything he's not in your typical Javier Bardem movie. A dangerous, volatile killer. I suspect Mr. Bardem enjoyed this since he played with such fearless bravado. He nailed it, he became Anton Chigurh. A few of the scenes he's in will make it in the history of cinema, notably the discussion he has with Woody Harrelson's character, which is eerie and funny at the same time.
Of course there are drawbacks. The arid style of Cormac McCarthy cannot be a complete success in cinema. The long silences in some of the scenes are breaking the pace that was already rather slow. I dig slow paced movies better than their crazy, all-out fast counterpart, but a slow, uneven movie can get rather dry and challenging. Anyway, it's a minor issue. No Country For Old Men is a great movie, one of the highlight of the Coens career. You'll want to watch it again and again.
Score: 91%
