No Country For Old Men: Red's Take

I'm second to this one thanks to Ruud obviously typing his review at lightning pace. I'm the old Tommy Lee Jones figure here struggling to keep up! The fact that there is two of us meant that there was the scope to do reviews for the same movies, this is going to be the first time. Obviously it gives two different perspectives on the film, which is a good thing in my book. Anyway here we go with Splice's second review of No Country For Old Men.



It's been a while but it's great to see the Coen Brothers back. Not just from the unusually long layoff since their last film but back on form too. If it took a slighty ropey remake of The Ladykillers to get them to this place then that former film suddenly shoots up in my estimation.

Truth be told I was starting to worry a little about the Coens. O Brother Where Art Thou was the last time I truly enjoyed one of their offerings, The Man Who Wasn't There was slightly underwhelming no matter how brilliantly Film Noir was channeled, convoluted plot and all. The last two were comparable to Kraftwerk's Tour De France album, it may be by the masters but it's like it was done by one of the less talented copyists. In truth the Coens were on auto-pilot.

Thankfully the break seems to have done the trick. Somewhere during the time off they seem to have remembered what made visceral debut Blood Simple such a thrilling film and decided to in a way revisit it. Again we have Texas, though it's mainly shot in the daylight this time around, the Coens capitalising on a larger budget to really show the beauty of this arid place. And most importantly of all we have a brutal storyline that doesn't protect its lead characters in any way. Just because you get to know them doesn't mean it'll turn out alright in the end.

Some of the Coen trademarks are there. There's a period setting (1980) and a certain accent that brings lots of little ticks and colloquialisms for the actors to master. And there's the humour. Due to the storyline it only surfaces occasionally and at times it may be little jokes thanks to editing (the chicken farmer's death) as opposed to a hitman with asthma. The scene in which Llewelyn is trying to book a room at a motel is a great example. Less than thirty seconds and with no real point, it's only in there because the Coens couldn't help themselves. The same goes for Carla Jean's mother's dialogue. Then of course there are the visual metaphors that invite you to mull over them for ages like the significance of Tom's hat in Miller's Crossing. The ones I noticed from the one viewing I've had so far are trails of blood, dogs (mainly dead) and feet.

It may sound like hyperbole that we may have already seen 2008's best film before January is out but it's going to take one hell of an effort to supplant this. That's not to say it's perfect. At two hours it is a smidgen too long. And then there's the ending. Obviously I'm not going to ruin it for you but for many it will be the thing that dictates their true feelings over Old Country. It essentially peeters out, but for me the ending works, it may not tie everything up but that was never the point of the film. To recount as to why the ending may be a problem I serve up what happened at the screening I was at. The screen cut to black, the credits rolled and many people audibly groaned. On the way out the guys behind me had this conversation:

Guy 1: "What was that about then?"

Guy 2: This referred to something that happens at the end so I won't recount it here if you haven't seen the movie. Suffice to say it involves Kelly McDonald's character and the fact that like many things in the second half of the movie something isn't explicitly shown which caused confusion.

Guy 3: "Totally, I'm guessing there'll be a sequel."

Guy 2: "Could be right there. Well we've seen a ton o' crap movies recently!"

Guy 3: "Aye another rubbish one you've dragged us to."

Guy 1: "They haven't all been bad. Hitman was excellent."

Guy 2 & 3 : "Aye it was."

You can draw your own conclusions on that one if you wish.

As I said for me the ending worked with the movie. The performances are universally excellent and the violence is almost beautiful in it's suddenness and brutality. Obviously as it's the Coens the dialogue and directions great, it almost goes without saying when it comes to these two. No Country For Old Men is a tough film but one that is ultimately rewarding, cyclical or not. And thankfully looking at the amount of projects the Coens have lined up on IMDB it looks as if the spark may well have been reignited. The Coens are back and all is well with the world.