Review

Review Date: 2-December-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Jubilation!

No Country for Old Men (2007)

The last several times I have watched a Coen brothers movie I have wondered, "What's the point?" since I do not appear to occupy the same wavelength as they. But my illogical persistence in returning for more, along with their decision to adapt the work of author Cormac McCarthy, has paid off. Their latest, No Country for Old Men, is so fine a film that I will continue to line up for whatever they do next. The picture has branded me an "old man" and reminded me that I have no place in this world (not that I needed reminding), yet still I extol its heartbreaking finesse.

I am a sucker for a thematic trinity like the one No Country uses to great effect. The movie opens and closes with an aging Texas sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) who comes from a long line of surefooted lawmen, a homespun hero and deliverer of quietly hilarious statements of simplicity like his female counterpart in the Coens' Fargo. In the metaphoric sense which permeates the movie, he embodies the decency many people attribute to bygone days and some people mourn as lost. From the sheriff the story moves to a vicious madman (Javier Bardem) who kills for pleasure and profit. He is the antithesis of the sheriff, a manifestation of the sociopathic detachment that seems rife in the modern age. After his introduction the plot focuses on an average redneck (Josh Brolin) who happens upon a botched drug deal and makes off with a bag full of money. He completes the triangle of central characters by representing the gray middle ground where most folks live. He has compassion, as shown by his devotion to his wife (Kelly Macdonald), but he understands violence and is not afraid of an involvement in crime.

This trio, wonderfully rendered by the actors, engages in a tense, gory round of flight-and-pursuit along the Mexican border as the killer tries to retrieve the money and the sheriff tries to prevent more bloodshed. To truly peg the country in its current state (or circa 1980, when the movie takes place), the money is never far from view until the bitter end. Its corruptive force is suggested by two ostensibly minor scenes where first the redneck, then the killer offer cash to young witnesses of their suffering; they would not expect or desire kindness from strangers. The world they inhabit — our world, yours and mine — is one where drugs and guns and murder are as common as pickup trucks in Texas, and lucre drives it all. Where does a sheriff who still rides a horse and believes in honor fit in? Should he even try to? As he says at the beginning, to do so is to accept things as they are. And maybe, the movie adds, as they always have been.

Ouch.

No Country for Old Men brings out the horror, tragedy, and sad sick humor of our predicament.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.