No Country for Old Men Reviewed

Coens back on form!

Following the slightly below average, well awful The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty, Joel and Ethan Coen have magnificently returned to form with what is a dark, poignant, heart-pounding and downright great film about a man who finds $2 million cash left over from a drug deal gone awry and his cat and mouse running and hiding from the hired gun sent after him to retrieve the money, all the while being narrated over by local Sheriff Tommy Lee Jones.
The film opens on an empty, desolate West Texas landscape stretching out at every angle, accompanied by the soft age worn words of Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Bell. What ensues is a fast paced drama revolving deeply around the themes of chance and fate, most superbly depicted in an unforgettable scene in which hired hitman Chigurh (Javier Bardem) terrorizes a petrol station attendant with fast talking and a coin toss that could determine whether he lives or dies. A stand-out feature in this picture is that of the minimal music. This picture is dominated by the sound of silence or the wind beating on the back of Llewelyn Moss' (Josh Brolin) neck. This illustrates the emptiness in which our lead actors have been enveloped, resonating off the screen also. It illustrates a picture of helplessness in this vast nothingness, this goes hand in hand with the theme of fate that is strewn throughout the film. The film is full of action, suspense and some great drmatic scenes, all acted superbly by what is an Oscar worthy cast.
The Coen brothers have here done what they do best and torn to shreads the conventions of the motion picture story arc, making some strong decisions with regards to how and what takes place in the final act. There are many occurences that go startling against the grain of Hollywood cinema, by the end our three main characters are still to share the screen, an element that works perfectly for this film. The ending will no doubt be hotly debated over the coming weeks, i shan't reveal any more than i have as it truely is a masterful piece of cinema and one that must not go unseen. The Coens have constructed an incredible picture in which the audience is engrossed from the beginning and held awfully tight until the end, an ending that finishes with a whimper rather than a bang, a whimper that works perfectly.

10/10