No Country For Old Men Review

The Coen brothers have been responsible for several of my favourite films. O' Brother Where Art Thou?, Miller's Crossing and The Ladykiller's (remake) are all in my top ten favourite films, so it may not come as a surprise when I say that I was really looking forward to No Country For Old Men. However, it will probably come as a surprise that I'm reviewing the film now, almost a year after it's release, and that I didn't see the film at the cinema, and that I only paid £5.99 for the standard edition of the DVD, well that's probably more of a reflection upon my financial situation than anything else. Just thought it was time that you guys realised how much of my blood, sweat and tears goes into these reviews. Not literally of course.

Now that utterly irrelevant, time wasting tangent is behind us I can begin to actually write about the film. The plot of the film can be summed up in three short sentences:

1. Man stumbles upon crime scene and large sum of money.

2. Man takes money and runs.

3. Psychopathic killer and cop pursue man.

The film does have a lot more to it than this, but that's roughly what the actual plot surmounts to, and it's by no means a bad thing. The fact that the plot doesn't need masses of time to be developed fully allows the Coen brothers time to develop tension. The lack of any character development beyond a want for money or justice allows the Coen brothers to elevate the dialogue and action within the film to levels dominated by subtext.

No Country For Old Men is an odd film. Whilst being exceptionally violent, and profoundly horrible, most of the physical violence is sudden and bizarrely unmoving. The plot of the film just ends, with no warning. The lack of any real sound track both creates massive of tension, and gives absolutely no release. The acting in No Country For Old Men is absolutely superb. Everyone gives their absolute best when performing, and with actors like Tommy Lee-Jones setting the standard for the rest of the cast, absolute best is simply outstanding.

To put it simply, No Country For Old Men doesn't feel like a film, it feels real. Which makes everything so much more terrifying. Whilst this film has masses of problems, most prominent being that the entire film is incredibly slow and all of it requires absolute attention, it managed to keep me consistently entertained, thoroughly wrecked my nerves and certainly gave me a lot to think about.

Finally, I'm sorry if this review seems a little disjointed and confused but No Country For Old Men really confused me. I liked it but I'm not really sure why.

8./10