No Country For Old Men – Review

“No Country For Old Men” is a movie that was adapted for the screen and directed by Joel & Ethan Coen from a novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. I hadn’t read the book, but had read McCarthy’s book “The Road”, so going in – I had an idea of how bleak the worlds that he could create can be and was anxiously hoping that the Coens (who are among my favorite film makers – but who have had a couple of missteps in their last outings) would return to the levels of my favorites of their movies (for today – “Barton Fink” seems to be my tops).

My mouth hung open for the first fifteen minutes at how ridiculously well framed and shot it was. It felt like one of those movies where you could pause it on every shot and would end up with a perfect composition. So right off the bat – the visuals pulled me into the movie. The one thing that kept constantly trying to distract me and pull me out of the mood that was being set was the woman sitting next to me – who like a three year old that can’t internalize their reactions to the world kept uttering “Oh my god,” and “Oh no” over and over at every stressful moment. Now – to her credit – it was a very stressful movie that kept me shifting in my chair from the edge to the back right corner and then over to the left middle.

Without ruining anything – I will tell you that the movie is about a man Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) who finds a bag full of money in the middle of the desert and the consequences that follow. One of those consequences is Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a psychotic killer who is looking for the money while following his own skewed set of rules and morals – which at times he seems almost pained to have to play through to the end. All the while the been-everywhere and seen-everything Sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) trails in the wake of all of the mayhem trying to piece together the puzzle – the likes of which he – actually – has never seen – he hopes in time to save Llewelyn from the mess that he has gotten himself into.

I loved the movie – and can’t stop thinking about different scenes from it. I want to read the book and go back and see it to be able to watch more closely to find some of the nuances that I am sure are in the movie – that I am positive are in the movie. I saw the movie about a week ago – and am still pretty giddy to go and see it again – even though there are parts to it that stick in my head as situations that really freak me out.

My Recommendation is to go out and see the movie. Then – sit through the next showing with a pad and a pen – so that you can take notes. Once you have gone through all of that, get back to me with your synopsis – and we will just treat the whole thing like a book club – for movies – a movie club – I guess.

I mean – seriously – I am curious as to what you think – and how you tick.