No Country for Old Men...

Finally got around to seeing this film on the big-screen and the wait was well worth it as the latest film from Joel and Ethan Coen was just brilliant. I have seen all of their work and for the most part always look forward to seeing their films, with a few exceptions like the remake of THE LADYKILLERS, which was beyond awful and INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, which is about as ironic as a horrible movie can have.

Anyway, enough about those two poor outings because if faith ever needed to be restored in Joel and Ethan, this is it. I can honestly say that it has been a long, long time since I have been to a movie where I was engaged from the first frame to the last, but this was it. Not only that, but I was totally absorbed into this film, which is a rare treat these days and I might even go on record as saying that this is probably the most mature film to come out of Hollywood in about 5 years. Simply put, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is definitely worth the praise that it has been getting.

Now like the other films of Joel and Ethan, this is not a movie everyone will like, or even understand, but I was hooked right away into the world it created. Unlike any of their films before, this one carries a heavy load and would be similar to some of their darker and more serious work like BLOOD SIMPLE, MILLERS CROSSING, and THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE, all of which are brilliant in their own right, yet their latest entry goes above and beyond in many ways. This is clearly a film made by competent filmmakers who are hitting their stride again and they are taking no prisoners as this film gets right to the point in the first few moments and never lets go until the very end. I can only hope this is a taste of what is yet to come from the Bros.

With the exception of some of David Cronenberg's work of late (i.e. EASTERN PROMISES and A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) this movie has some of the most graphic violence in many years, but it's valuable to the plot and character development and the Coen's know how to work with it in a respectful, realistic, and important way. Our story quickly picks up as a hunter (Josh Brolin in a superb understated role) stumbles across a drug deal gone bad in 1980 somewhere out in the deserts of the Rio Grande. Bodies are shot up everywhere and there is a stash of 2 million dollars left for him to 'have'. Well, this drug money needs a home, so why not make off with it? Well, money like that doesn't just disappear without some retribution and before too long people are after him. He is no square though, he knows the reality of the situation and understands full-well what type of danger he is in, so he packs up his wife and off he goes in an attempt to thwart the attempts on his life. One dangerous man though is quick to follow though, as this professional assassin (Javier Bardim) doesn't have a sense of humor about the situation and will kill anyone or anything in his path.

Tommy Lee Jones (in one of his best performances in years) plays a nearly retired sheriff who is good as solving cases, but he is torn with the way that things are going in the world as he starts to see new patterns of horrible events, his father and grandfather were also lawmen and his heart is in it, but his mind is telling him that things are not like they used to be in the 'good ole days' when people respected one another. Sure, there was killing, but it made sense, these days it doesn't seem to have a rhyme or reason to it.

Now unlike so many cliched films, what sets this one truly above and beyond is that the characters of this film do not intersect one another in obvious ways, the story lines naturally progress and come together in very interesting, unique, realistic, and profound ways that only true masters like Joel and Ethan could pull together in a way that would still be eventful and equally entertaining.

To say I loved this film would be an understatement. I simply identified with the film and the feelings of the characters in a profound way, especially since it was set in a certain era, which actually made me think back to my grandparents and how I was raised where things were just different. People acted a different way and you treated people like they were people, but in this day and age, everyone keeps to themselves. Although the one realization that the film makes is that there will always be dangerous people doing dangerous things, and that we need good people to always protect and to make right those wrongs, there needs to be someone to uphold justice in this world.