The Daily Narcissist Goes to the Movies: No Country for Old Men

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Okay, no suspense here. Four swipes of the cat tail for No Country for Old Men. I feel giddy - giddily happy after seeing this movie.

How can one feel this way after having seen a whole lot of graphic murders? One can because one has been completely, thoroughly and superbly entertained. Based on a Cormac McCarthy novel, and written for the screen and directed by the inimitable Coen brothers, No Country for Old Men is a perfect movie. I love going to Coen brothers' movies because I am 100% certain I'm going to see something very different from the usual pablum of American film making. I was not disappointed.
















Plot summary: Llewelyn Moss, played spot on by Josh Brolin (who knew?), is out hunting in the west Texas desert one hot, glaringly sunny day when he stumbles on a drug deal gone very, very wrong, as evidenced by many shot up pick-up trucks and dead bodies, including one dog. He finds something that I think most of us wouldn't blame him for taking, and carries it back to his pretty young wife waiting impatiently at home in the trailer park.















A twinge of conscience sends him back to the crime scene in the middle of the night. This arbitrary act of kindness sets in motion a tension-filled, violent chase by first Anton Chigurh (played by the superb Spanish actor Javier Bardem, whom I last saw in The Sea Inside), then Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones, masterful and, as always, at the top of his game), and finally "fixer" Carson Wells (Woody Harrellson).

























In between all the mayhem and murder perpetrated by the deliciously psychotic Chigurh, you'll find humor slipped in that had all of us in the audience chuckling out loud many times. You have to listen carefully. I've read some reviews that try to equate the dessicated and violence-filled scenery with a metaphor for the current lawless and fucked-up state of the US. I don't know if that's McCarthy's intent, and I don't know if I see it that way, but it doesn't matter because the story in and of itself is so well put together, fantastically well-acted and perfectly filmed.

















If you're familiar with the nature of Cormac McCarthy's writing and the Coen brothers' affection for "noirish" film making, you won't be too surprised with how it ends. But really, the ending is almost besides the point. Watching Bardem's fastidious Chigurh mess with a sincere but hapless Texas gas station owner, and Jones' humorous, world-weary intelligence effortlessly and accurately (almost) assembling the pieces of this bit of "dismal tide" is just way too much fun to miss.

And if anyone can find me the soundtrack, especially the track, "Blood Trail", that plays during the ending credits, I'll be forever grateful.