No Country for Old Filmmakers
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
I wanted to like the Coen Brother’s ‘No Country for Old Men’, based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name. Who doesn’t admire those brash Coen boys, who’s ‘Big Lebowski’ and ‘Fargo’ took the world by the storm, both on the strength of their clever stories, perfectly casted actors and sure-handed direction. The Coen Brothers first accoladed feature, “Blood Simple”, brought a modern take on noir and at first, ‘No Country for Old Men’ seemed to have a similiar spirit, but where “Blood Simple” tied everything together neatly into a roller-coaster 8-beat structure, “No Country” doesn’t want to make things that predictable.
Instead we have Javier Bardem’s assasin character shooting people when he should be twitching, including important characters, and the plot falling into a black hole as a consequence. The themes are are there, as are the excellent performances, especially by Tommy Lee Jones, but the structure falls apart, and it was a disappointment to walk out of the theatre waiting for the other shoe to drop. Either give us “part II” or re-edit this thing, ‘No Country for Old Men” is only the first half of “Blood Simple”.