The Bottom Line
There's much to admire in the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men. Winner of four Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for the marvelously creepy Javier Bardem), the film is utterly engrossing and brilliantly crafted, though this dark story of greed and evil might turn your stomach.
Pros
- Winner of 2008 Best Picture Academy Award
- Faithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel
- Javier Bardem's hair cut (and his chilling performance)
Cons
- A bleak and unremitting story of greed and evil
- What happens to Kelly McDonald
Description
- A Joel and Ethan Coen film
- Starring: Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, and Kelly McDonald.
- Winner of four Academy Awards
- Special Feature: The Making of No Country for Old Men
- Special Feature: Working With the Coens: Reflections of Cast and Crew
- Released: March 11, 2008
Guide Review - No Country For Old Men DVD
Taciturn cowboy Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds a suitcase full of money out near the Rio Grande -- along with several dead Mexicans and a pick up truck full of heroin. Our hero knows that he shouldn't take the money, but he takes it anyway.
For the duration of No Country For Old Men, The Coen Brothers' slick adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel, Moss runs doggedly for his life, relentlessly chased by a psycho killer with an unusual hair cut (Javier Bardem). That's the main dramatic question: will Moss get to hold on to the loot and his life?
Bardem makes for an unforgettable contract killer. He's more than just good with a weapon (a strange one at that). Long sequences transpire without dialogue, where the hunter (Bardem) and the hunted (Brolin) track each other with almost uncanny brilliance.
While No Country For Old Men is compelling from beginning to end, the film lacks soul.
