5 out of 5

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

A true rarity in film that uses the medium to… achieve something stronger than just entertainment. Plenty of films have given a viewer food for thought, but the Coens No Country For Old Men goes somehow deeper than that, not providing direct questions to ponder, but rather an experience that makes you wonder how you feel about it. Especially amazing for a movie of this type is that the plot DOES matter – Llewelyn (Brolin) stumbles across a drug deal gone bad that seems to conclude with an unclaimed suitcase of money. Nothing is free, of course, and so Anton (Bardem) is tasked with tracking down the man and the money. The Coens apply all of their skill for keeping things involving but not trite: our grounded character, narrator sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is just as affected by the going-ons, even if he is only peripherally related to our two leads. Brolin imbues Llewelyn with believable charm and smarts, and Bardem is, essentially, evil, but somehow prevents his frightening character from becoming simply an axe-wielding slasher. Both roles are presented more through action than words. The Coens have explored human faults and prevalent evil before, but never before have their hands been so removed from the material. What shows through as their touch is simply the unbelievable talent with which all has been put together: the sound, the look, the acting. It is to their, and the films strength that the Coens realized this distance would be necessary to the film. Theres too much to say about this movie – so again, its rare that something comes along so polished, so deep and so affecting, and does seem to happen only at the peak of an artists career. Bleak, but an amazing movie.