Sunday 20 January 2008

The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men


To see the latest Coen Brothers' violent epic No Country for Old Men last night. Javier Bardam is stunning as the amoral killer Anton Chigurh in pursuit of the Vietnam vet Llewelyn Moss (played by Josh Brolin), who has stumbled across a lot of dead bodies and a briefcase stuffed with $2 million in $100 notes. With several sub-plots, a stellar cast (also numbering Tommy Lee Jones, Kelly McDonald and Woody Harrelson) and amazing photography, this is the Brothers on top form, as the western set in 1980 pans out near the Mexican-US border. I don't think it is as good as either Fargo or O Brother Where Art Thou?, but it is undoubtedly fine film-making, and even if the plot (not unusually for the Coens) lacks any sense of final resolution, it is a rewarding movie.

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