No Country For Old Men
Synopsis: A man comes upon a suitcase with $2 million dollars from a drug deal gone wrong. He takes the money and hides it, but a violent criminal hired to recover the cash complicates his plans and puts him and those around him in mortal danger.
Technical Details
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Review
It was with great expectation that I finally watched the critically acclaimed and multiple Oscar winner film No Country For Old Men, from the Coen brothers. Expectation because this movie marks the return of the Coens to the genre of memorable films such us Fargo and Miller’s Crossing. With all the awards and the buzz around it it was safe to assume that “No Country” was going to be another hit. Right? Well, no.
The Coen brothers adapted this film from the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. The story begins when Lewellyn Moss, who is on a hunting expedition, comes upon a place in the desert where a drug deal went horribly wrong, and the men from the two sides killed each other. Among the dead bodies he finds a stash of heroin and a suitcase with $2 million dollars in cash. He takes the cash, and this will put Anton Chigurh, a cold blooded killer, on his tail. Dead bodies start to appear everywhere Anton goes, and that sets Ed Tom Bell, the town’s sheriff, in motion. But Ed Tom feels overwhelmed by his job, a job that he believe has changed substantially from the old days, a job that requires him to face much more violence than he can tolerate.
The technical values of the film are, as always with the Coen duo, impeccable. The Anton Chigurh composed by Javier Bardem gave me chills, but more than Bardem I was impressed by the subtle, low key work of Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell.
What bothers me about this movie is that it doesn’t clearly define itself. There is the thriller side of it, with Lewellyn running away with the $2 million, Anton following him and Ed Tom after both. But then there is the dramatic component, represented by Ed Tom’s feelings and reflections about the old days and the new days, and his trouble coping with a world that is becoming more and more violent. I suspect the latter is what drives the story in the book by McCarthy. In the movie, however, the Coens decided to focus on the thriller aspect of the story, so much that the more meaningful moments seemed out of place.
Those who are looking for a good thriller may not feel satisfied with this film, the conclusion lacks the intensity demanded by all the tension that builds up from the very beginning. Fans of the Coens will certainly find sparks of the brothers genius in several scenes, but all in all this film is inferior when compared to the many great films that came from the duo in the 90s.
©2008 by Miguel Grinberg
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