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Film Review: Coen Brothers ‘No Country For Old Men’

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By: DThompson | in: Movies |

No Country For Old Men

With their latest film, No Country For Old Men, the Coen Brothers have created a fantastic chimera. On the surface a crime thriller in the vein of their first effort, Blood Simple, the film is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. You’d think from the trailer it’s a sort of western noir and while it has elements of both, it’s actually a film primarily concerned with chance and luck. Bad luck that is, and the choices people make that bring bad luck their way.

No Country For Old Men

The Texas No Country inhabits is one where almost no one is what they seem. For example, you’d think the film is about a hitman (Javier Bardem) because we start on this character and stay with him, though we never know the crime he was originally arrested for, or even why he’s in Texas in the first place. You’d think he’s a totally insane cold blooded killer. Well, he is, but he’s also the most thoughtful character in the film and certainly the one who best understands the nature of the world he lives in. Then, you’d think the film was about Josh Brolin, stumbling onto a VERY large sum of money at a drug deal gone infinitely wrong. You’d think the film was going to be about an everyman who turned out to be much much more. Well, it is, sortof… Then you might think the film was about Tommy Lee Jones’ aging sheriff Ed Tom Bell, solving the crime in his wily Texas way. Again, you’d only be half right. No Country For Old Men has elements of all these things, but really it’s about bad luck.

No Country For Old Men

A violent, bizarre ode to the tossing of coins and the rolling of dice, the film is fascinating from beginning to end. Incidents of random chance drive No Country and destroy character’s lives with brutal regularity. The illusionary feel is enhanced by populating the film with interestingly-faced character actors. The Coen brothers have often been accused of crafting emotionally cold films and I doubt No Country is going to change that perception much. Two hours in the company of unfriendly, amoral, or just plain crazy people is no warm fuzzy experience for the heart. It is, however, a compelling and rewarding experience for the mind.

Because the story shifts its focus from one person to the next, it’s tempting to call it an ensemble film with no real star. However, it does have a star. The main character is a black leather satchel filled with $2 million dollars. It doesn’t have a lot to say, but neither do most of the other taciturn men populating this Texas purgatory.

No Country For Old Men

Josh Brolin is a mostly passionless, greedy, mean-spirited thief, but, he comes off as something of a good guy just by virtue of being one of the few characters who doesn’t want to kill everyone he meets on sight. He manages to get a lot of people killed anyway.
Only the hitman seems to understand the central core of random chance acting upon the story, and even he cannot escape the arbitrary misfortune that is visited upon every character. Every single character. Minor characters, major characters, even characters we only hear about in stories told by other characters, virtually no one escapes their run in with Texas-sized bad luck. And, for those who do, you gotta figure it’s just a matter of time before their cookie crumbles.
Their bad luck is, of course, our good luck since any new Coen Brothers film is cause for dancing in the streets. No Country is no exception. Though the end seems a touch arbitrary, as long as you remember this is a desert mirage of a film, where nothing is really what you first thought it to be, you’ll be fine.

VERDICT: Come to Coen country.

No Country For Old Men Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBqmKSAHc6w


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Posted on December 1, 2007

Comments

4 Responses to “Film Review: Coen Brothers ‘No Country For Old Men’”

  1. Rusty on December 1st, 2007 7:36 am

    Wow! I can’t wait to see this film, thanks D for this review.
    Coen Brothers are my favorite directors by far..


  2. Stars news » Blog Archive » Film Review: Coen Brothers ‘No Country For Old Men’ on December 1st, 2007 9:56 am

    [...] Film Review: Coen Brothers ‘No Country For Old Men’By DThompsonThen you might think the film was about Tommy Lee Jones’ aging sheriff Ed Tom Bell, solving the crime in his wily Texas way. Again, you’d only be half right. No Country For Old Men has elements of all these things, but really it’s about …The Plugg Music Blog - http://www.theplugg.com [...]


  3. mozzer on December 4th, 2007 6:15 pm

    Kickass review Mr Thompson. I really really want to see this!


  4. The Plugg: Best Moments in Film 2007 : Maor Ezer on December 8th, 2007 6:14 am

    [...] • Time out for surrealism. Josh Brolin awakes half dead in Mexico, being serenaded by a mariachi band. No Country For Old Men. [...]


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