I avoided all the reviews, going in with as open a mind as I could muster, given that I'm a Coen aficionado.
This film combines the apocalyptic vision of Barton Fink or O Brother Where Art Thou? or Raising Arizona with the crime-gone-awry humor, pathos, and tension of Blood Simple and Fargo. Yet it is a darker work, largely because the villain, in one character's words, "Doesn't have a sense of humor."
This is the movie that A History of Violence tried to be, though it failed. Every element of mood, pacing, and cinematography that Cronenberg missed, the Coen brothers nail. Tommy Lee Jones' turn as a world-weary sheriff is particularly strong, his moral gravitas a necessary counterpart to Javier Bardem's methodical evil.
No Country For Old Men is the first genuine masterpiece of 2007.
A breathtaking film. I'm still gasping.
1 comment:
Awww...nuts.
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