Josh Brolin comes across a drug deal gone wrong and $2 million. After he takes the money, he's chased by psychopathic killer Javier Bardem psychopathic killer, who is in turn chased by Woody Harrelson -- all of which is observed from an investigative distance by sheriff Tommy Lee Jones.
I don't want to come across as a negative nancy, so I'll say this right out: this is a good movie. The use of expansive landscape shots in the beginning effectively incorporates nature as another character, setting the tone and mood like in "Mountain Patrol." The Coen brothers also build a great deal of suspense whenever Bardem's character, Anton Chigurh (not pronounced "sugar"), is closing in on Brolin. These sequences draw not a little from horror film, and outdo most recent ones by a long shot. "No Country" also signals a return to form for the Coen brothers, being much closer to their superior early work ("Blood Simple," "Fargo," "Miller's Crossing") than their more recent "The Man Who Wasn't There." Bringing their trademark style -- violent and quirky, with healthy doses of black humor -- the Coen brothers may be the perfect choice to bring Cormac McCarthy's amoral world to the screen. Plus, Bardem was creepy as hell.
But the film was not without its flaws. Harrelson was woefully miscast and outmatched acting-wise, but his role is thankfully brief. For awhile, the film is also distractingly similar to "Fargo": a crime gone bad, told alongside the parallel story of police investigating it, with all the characters interacting with the local yokels. The main difference is that the Coen brothers made "Fargo" as funny as "No Country" is terrifying. True, the film is adapted from a book, so what could the Coen brothers do? But still, to have that similarity invites the comparison, and one can't help but think of "Fargo" as the better film. And for a chase film that does so well in building suspense, "No Country" peters out towards the end, tying up loose ends in a distant way that feels tacked on. It's off-putting to know you're watching the denouement while you're wondering, where was the climax?
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This movie is like Fargo in that the Coen brothers directed it. The end. This isn't a screwball/ keystone cop/ benny hill with his billy club never able to catch up to the buxsom blondes story--so I don't get the whole "things go wrong". Things don't go wrong for Bardem's character. They go exactly as he plans, which is the point. It is just as Woody Harrelson's character explains--Chigurh is a man of principle--problem is he's amoral. So well-intended, no gun carrying, good will prevail over evil in the end sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones can't stop him. There is no way to anticipate or rationalize a socio-path like Chigurh. Even Brolin's character whose supposed to be some Vietnam Vet badass has no idea what he's up against. In the end the sheriff has to come to terms with the fact that some things/actions/people etc. are beyond comprehension and therefore beyond apprehension. The dude gave his life to keep the people of his small town safe and then at the end of his career this dude comes along? WTF?! But that's how it is. Just like the snippet he reads from the paper about the family in CA murdering people and then burying them in their backyard--it serves to show he's beginning to realize he can't change things because he can't even imagine what's out there. At best he's been a band-aid, at worst completely ineffective. This movie isn't just good, it fucking rules. Watch it again! But first go see There Will Be Blood!
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