No Country for Old Man

No Country for Old Men (Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson) — What a downer!  Make no mistake about it, this is a fine film, expertly crafted by the Coen brothers from the book byCormac McCarthy.  When you hear about a movie being gritty, this is what they mean.  It’s gritty and violent and unnerving while, at the same time, being arty and disturbing.  It’s set in west Texas around 1970 so this is not a true western.  Rather, it merely feels like a western because there are sheriffs and guns and outlaws.  Tommy Lee Jones is the terrifically understated, seen-it-all county sheriff who realizes that the bad guys have passed him by.  It’s automatic weapons, compressed air canisters, and drug busts gone wrong.  The prize is money – lots of it.  Llewelyn Moss (Brolin) is a local welder and frontiersman who happens upon the drug runners’ carnage, finding millions in the process.  He is hell-bent on keeping the money and soon realizes that he’s up against an assassin, Anton Chighur (Bardem, in the most scary, eerie characterization since Hannibal Lector), who is crazy and determined.  But Moss is convinced he can triumph … and so is Chigurh.  I promise you will not be bored.  You will wince and squirm while wondering where it all will lead.  This is not a film for the squeamish.  Bardem is a lock for an Oscar nomination and Jones might get one, too.  The movie is Oscar caliber if for no other reasons than originality, which is in very shot supply these days.  And while we have come to expect the bizarre from Joel and Ethan Coen, this is more mainstream in some ways that their films like Fargo, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty.  These two are fine writers and almost as good as directors.  They will win many prizes for this even if not many people will see this killer of a movie.