It should have come to me as no surprise that the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men is more than meets the eye. On the surface it is a crime thriller akin to previous films by them, more so Fargo and Blood Simple out of their impressive filmography. A roster of characters are all involved with money gone missing and will stop at nothing to get it, or keep it. The set up is quite simple (hell, even The Big Lebowski revolved around a similar scenario) but this time around the material filters into rather unexpected exploration of fate and death, with plenty of dark comedy trimmings to satisfy die hard fans of the Coens.
Returning full force to the familiar territory of the crime thriller genre the Coens prove once again that they are arguably the best genre filmmakers out there, more so since they tend to switch genres and cross reference them with such precise ingenuity. Set against the backdrop of barren Texas, the film drifts between being a somewhat modern day Western, a Don Siegel thriller, and an exercise in suspense that even Alfred Hitchcock would surely admire. Inching its way into the film are the aforementioned themes of fate and death, each playing a greater part in the story as time goes on.
By no means is this a morality tale that breaks its characters down the way Sam Raimi's A Simple Plan did (that too was a movie about found money and the consequences that can come with such a cursed blessing.) The three central characters all fall into rather concrete categories, with Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) representing the good, hit man Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) representing pure evil, and an average Everyman, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin,) falling right into the gray area as a man who stumbles upon a satchel of $2 million, and a lot of dead bodies, while hunting one morning.
What unfolds is a relentless chase movie that certainly requires the suspension of disbelief on more than one occasion, but has so much suspense that, like most taut thrillers, engulfs its audience with sequences packed with an astonishing amount of build up based on sound effects and silence. Curiously the Coens do not lend any pleasantries to Llewelyn that would cause anyone to sympathize with him or his situation. By taking the money he has opened up Pandora's Box and he alone must face what is coming his way. He also must confront fate itself, and he begins to learn this the hard way when the menacing Bardem character is dispatched to recover the money.
We live in an age where many of a film's gimmicks are released in the trailers and even TV spots. The device in which the psychopathic Chigurh dispatches his victims, and the locks to various doors, with is simply chilling. Its revelation should have been left on the cutting room floor of the marketing department. Mixed with his penchant for flipping coins to determine whether someone will live or die, it becomes very clear very quickly just how interesting this villain truly is. It's a wonderfully disturbing outing for Bardem, and one that begins with his appearance, that of his wide, hollow eyes and mop top haircut, parted to the side over his pale face. Creepy doesn't begin to describe this guy.
Jones and Brolin (who gets the bulk of the screen time by my approximation) both round out the lighter end of the character spectrum, with Jones' presence in the story amounting to much more as the film draws to an end. There certainly is an imbalance to the emphasis of one character over another, but this just becomes another bullet point in ones list of non-conventional elements the Coens have added to this excellent film. And there's quite a lot to note, all summarized by the fact that brilliant filmmakers like the Coens have such a grasp on filmmaking that they can conquer any genre of their craft. They demonstrate carefully calculated suspense, orchestrate Michael Mann-esque action set pieces, and once again prove the pen is mightier than the sword by adapting the pages of author Cormac McCarthy's novel and making it unfold with such eloquent pacing.
I really do not wish to continue driving home my points about how the Coens have such an innate ability to make conventional formulas so unconventional. It's too generalized a statement and too broad for a review. While it may make for a great conversation starter, it has no place on the written page. No Country For Old Men reveals itself to be greater than the sum of its parts, and it does take some time revolving back to its central themes, but it is captivating enough to deliver its audience an open ended finale that really puts everything into perspective, even if it seemed like it was all just supposed to be entertaining pulp fiction.
