No Country for Old Men Review

Ok this may seem a bit late but I just want to give my own personal best of 2007 review. I’m going to breaking down No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood now that I have finally seen both, and have had time to really think about them. Also note this is not a comparison style review and don’t expect a top three towards the end. If you like the top three just wait for my next review, if you don’t know what I’m talking about feel free to check out my other reviews ;)

Lets start with No Country for Old Men as it was the first one I watched. The plot is, in essence, a simple one. Llewelyn Moss (played by Josh Brolin) stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong where he finds two million dollars. He takes the money and is now on the run from ultra badass Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who is willing to kill anyone to get the money back. There is of course more to it but I don’t want to spoil anything. There is also an almost side-plot where we follow Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) as he discovers all the carnage Chigurh leaves in his wake. He always arrives just a little too late but is very important to the story because he provides an everyman character to fill our place in the story. He discovers all the pieces as we do, and gives us insight into the town around him. He begins and ends the story for us and sets a tone that follows through the movie with some truly amazing pieces of dialogue. There is also a character named Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson) who gives us a bit of background on Chigurh. Now that I have that out of the way let’s get into some criticism.

Bardem won his Oscar for a good reason, he was brilliant in this film. He played the most believable psychopath I have ever seen, which in this film is a really good thing. He was so cool and composed while killing and destroying (the action in this movie is brutal but also very stylish)and his dialogue was perfect, both sinister and brilliant. This is one of those movies where you’ll be thinking, “man I hope the bad guy survives". The rest of the cast is superb as well, with not one weak performance in sight. It’s also important to note the direction is great and the scenes are played out well to create all kinds of tension. Some beautiful cinematography aswell.

I never read the book but from what I hear the movie is very faithful to it. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because I’m assuming the lines the characters spoke come directly from the novel, but bad because they also brought in a flaw from the book. Anyone who has seen or followed this movie knows what I’m talking about. I’m going to clear this debate up now before I get ahead of myself, the movie has an ending and it’s perfect. What it lacks is a climax. And I don’t care what the fans of the book say you don’t cut out the climax of any story, no matter what medium it appears in. No matter how it’s portrait it’s a flaw. And yes it did make me mad until I realized the movie wasn’t done. The falling action (or the denouement, if you’re a lit geek like me) is awesome and resolution at the end sums up the entire film, both thematically and stylistically, perfect. Really the only problem lies with the lack of climax but at the same time this lone problem will make a lot of people mad, it’s the kind of flaw that could actually ruin the movie for you. But if you’re like me it will be over shadowed by the amazing acting and dialogue.

I loved this movie but I can’t give it a perfect score because of its one Achilles heel, the lack of a climax. So It’s an A and should be on your list of movies to see, unless you’re the kind of person who really needs that money shot to get off. But you know who you are and if that’s how you role I suggest the next movie I’ll review, There Will be Blood.

Humm, I seem to be running a little long. I’ll post the next review latter and give my thoughts concerning which one you should watch depending on what you like. So that’s it for now.