No Country For Old Men

No Country For Old Men

A Review

What's the most you ever lost in a coin toss.

Having recently watched No Country For Old Men, I understand only now that I have been living in a movie-deprivation chamber for years. If I were to be completely honest with you, I would say that I only heard of this film literally weeks ago, roughly five years after its release. It was during an Academy Awards flashback sequence, where I watched the two second clip of Javier Bardem hobbling in some sort of department store and a car exploding in the window behind him, unphased. So freaking cool. I still sit in horror at the thought that I may have been so ignorant to not notice this film, and it bloody won 4 Oscars!

Joel and Ethan Coen's adaption of Cormac McCarthy's novel is indeed a very impressive movie, one that cannot go unnoticed. Gritty, realistic and apocalyptic in ways, No Country For Old Men appeals suspense-junkies, and fits into our movie collection right next to The Silence of the Lambs.

It's all out war.

Directed by the famous Coen Brothers, No Country For Old Men plays with your traditional narrative oriented brain, yet is by far no film experiment. The movie starts off with a hardened Tommy Lee Jones (who plays the local sheriff) narration that opens the film and introduces Javier Bardem's serial killer character, Anton Chigurh. Then we're led to Josh Brolin's character, who may be the world's last cowboy, Llewelyn Moss, who plays our protagonist - for now, anyway. Llewelyn (think "Lou-Ellen") is out in the open and unspoiled 1980's Texas where he stumbles across a drug deal gone wrong. Left behind is a bunch of dead bodies and a case containing two million dollars, which is taken by Llewelyn to start a new life for himself and his wife (Kelly Macdonald). From here, the story becomes a three-headed beast, as we follow each character's stories and watch them intertwine in pursuit of Llewelyn.

All good so far, right? Well, your sense of safeness with the film will turn to frustration and despair, forcing you to throw your hands in the air and scream..! I'm trying not to delve into spoiler-territory for this one, but what happened to spur such an emotional reaction is a game-changer, and one that made me question whether I should even continue watching the film..

But don't let this turn you off from watching No Country - the film could be watched for the performances alone. The standout performance in this film is Javier Bardem's, who convincingly plays Anton Chigurh as a relentless "Hannibal crossed with the Terminator". Javier cements his acting skills solid in my heart and mind in this film. Physically commanding, unpredictable and a "crazy calm" quality, he is perfect in this role as he is playing a bad guy in any film (see Skyfall). Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Kelly Macdonald collectively give stellar performances, all worthy of the awards and praise they have each received.

'Are you going to shoot me?' 'That depends. Do you see me?'

No Country For Old Men is thrilling and realistic. It's presented in a way that feels very bleak and apocalyptic, in the way that it is bleak and apocalyptic as the fate of some of the characters. Adding to this tone is the supreme lack of score, which makes you feel very uneasy and delved inside the drama. If there was any more music included in the film it would have just distracted me from the thrill.

To pick out one more obvious ploy that made me love the film, the way the screenplay has been written really gets to me. The situation Llewelyn finds himself in feels totally real in the way that it's so unpredictable. It feels like anything could happen in any situation. There is never any "guardian angel" that gets our hero out of sticky situations, and I applaud the Coen brothers for this. 

This film has been made so well. Everything, from direction to sound design, culminates and is woven together so well that my suspense was continually heightened throughout watching.

If I haven't convinced you already, or if you're like me in that you naturally stray away from Oscar award winners, take it by my word right now. See this movie.

No Country for Old Men: 4.5 out of 5 Texan 'staches