No Country For Old Men

The boys and I, plus Casey went to see No Country For Old Men and lets just say I was quite pleased. I'm not too sure how in depth I want to go with this review so I will just let this ride and see where it goes.

Let's start with the where this movie comes from, it's based on the novel by the same name by Cormac McCarthy. While I haven't read this book in particular I have read two of his others and the movie at least fit right in with the other two books I've read; very dark, very ideologically intense, and ultra violent (but not in a bad way, McCarthy's violence always serves a purpose). The story is a simple enough initial premise: poor guy finds a bunch of money that doesn't belong to him and is ruthlessly and impressively pursued by Mexican drug-runners and a homicidal maniac.

Then there are the Coen brothers, the masterminds behind some very popular movies like O' Brother Where Art Thou, Fargo, and Paris je t'aime, as well as some of my favorites such as The Big Lebowski and Raising Arizona. They wrote some of them and they produced the rest of them. Either way, I've been fans of their work for a long time before I knew it was their work. Anyways, on to the movie.

The movie immediately introduces the antagonist, and man is he a good one. Played by veteran actor, Javier Bardim, he is relatively unknown in the United States (IMDB tells me has had 43 acting roles, 32 of which have Spanish titles and 11 English titles. 4 of those English titles are still in pre-production.) He's got a trusting smile, a true creeper haircut, and he doesn't freaking blink. Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Woody Harrelson also contribute excellent roles as main and supporting characters. The cinematography is excellent, especially during the suspense sequences; I know my heart was racing, and I'm pretty sure everyone else's was as well. The movie is set in Texas, and some of the shots make the barren scrub-brush desert of that state look actually beautiful instead of barren and wasteful. The movie also contains a lot of shots that subtly help convey the themes of the movie.

The last thing I want to address is the ending. It was perfect. I don't think this movie could have ended any other way. We all definitely had to sit around for a few minutes afterwards and let it settle in. As a reference, for those who have seen Atonement, it definitely does not hit quite as hard as the ending of the movie, but it still hits. And, as a final add, this movie definitely all the awards it has been nominated for and won.

So, overall, the movie had an intriguing story, excellent acting, one of my new favorite villains, nice filming, and a shotgun with a silencer on it.

Final Score: 8 Beards