Title: No Country For Old Men
Cast: Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones
Directors: Ethan and Joel Coen
Plot: A hunter, an old sheriff and an assassin’s life cross path in the 80’s when a drug deal goes wrong and a cat ‘n mouse chase that follows it.
Bottomline : Absorbing!!
Great things are done simple. You don’t need a complex plot filled with zig-zag narrative, twist endings and multi-level plots to make great cinema. Great cinema can be made by just capturing exactly what happens in a story. Outright realism is what transpires into greatness on screen. And you can’t complain to the Coen brothers for doing just that.
‘No Country for Old Men’ in the hands of lesser mortals would have easily become one of those run-of –the-mill guns n’ thrills movie that we see every summer. But when such a plot as simple this fall into the hands of the not-so-less mortals, we see a movie where you are literally sitting there in the hall with your mouth wide open.
At the end of the movie, the average viewer is left in no doubt as to how a thriller has won four academy awards over some three hour long romantic drama movie. The treatment of the plot is absorbing at worst, its cant-take-your-eyes-off at best. The Coen's recurrent strains of fate and circumstances only add to the intrigue. You will never look at a coin toss the same way after you watch this movie. Nor will you look a bullet wound or a suitcase the same way after you see this one. Roger Deakins camera captures 80’s Texas to its fullest extent. Sound editing is another high point of the movie. Lack of background score adds to the intensity of the movie. This is one more after ‘I am Legend’ this year to have used silence as an integral part rather than a vague necessity.
Tommy Lee Jones’ portrayal as the fatigued, old sheriff under whose very eyes anarchy ensues, is very moving. He looks every inch an 80’s character and is an embodiment of the ‘tired’ tone of the movie. Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss, the hunter who becomes the hunted, is one character who hasn’t got much to do other than run and dodge bullets. His character is not a waste but rather a clog in the plot. But the real screen stealer is the sociopathic assassin, Anton Chigurh (Spanish actor Javier Bardem) sent out to recover the money lost in the deal. Cold, unassuming and heartless, his character breathes evil through every pore and represents the ideas of the movie.His character is through which the Coen brothers reach out to the audience. His dialogue delivery, voice modulation disturbs you. A sure-shot winner for the Oscars. A corker of a role!!! Hats Off…
Rating: 8.5/10 (Two Thumbs Up)
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