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No Country for Old Men review
:. Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
:. Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem
:. Running Time: 2:02
:. Year: 2008
:. Country: USA
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A masterly adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 2005 best-seller, No Country for Old Men by the Coen brothers is film noir with echoes of Fargo. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) doesn't factor in the consequences when he decides to take a suitcase containing 2 million dollars from the site of a massacre between Mexican drug traffickers. On his tail, the local sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) and a psychopath (Javier Bardem) who decides the fate of his victims by playing heads or tails.
No Country for Old Men is above all a reflection on change. In a Texas which saw the construction of the United States, Indians and cowboys have disappeared to the benefit of narcotrafficker's. The Coen brothers have kept Sheriff Bell's long philosophical tirades from McCarthy's novel that talk about the era that's passing him by and that he no longer understands. Played by Tommy Lee Jones in his millionth interpretation of a lawman, the blasé sheriff represents the inevitably losing side of the hunt for a man who is his opposite, an evil figure who kills anyone crossing his path.
As for the rest, this adaptation delivers a classic thriller that puts too much emphasis on the character of the insane killer, played by an unrecognizable Javier Bardem, who is as terrifying as he is funny. Even though it's a genre film, No Country for Old Men nevertheless represents what the two directors best deliver: a knowing mix of ultra-violent scenes and lively dialogue, somewhere between road-movie and thriller. A surprising mise en scène, particularly at the end of the story where the writers choose an ellipse for the ending. Overall a great work of cinema by the Coen brothers which hasn't been seen in quite some time.
Moland Fengkov
Translated into English by Anji Milanovic
 Reviews 2012 - present
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