Directors: Joel and Ethan, the Coen Brothers
Rating: 10/10
I have loved the Coen Brothers’ movies ever since I watched “Fargo” four years ago. I didn’t think they would ever make a movie than that. Now I feel stupid for doubt their abilities. It is rare when a film makes you feel that whatever the highest rating score I can give or whatever I can write would never be enough to do justice to the movie. The movie has a couple of entwining stories with Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, and Woody Harrelson collaborating to make this movie perfect.
The movie is essentially a chase. We meet two characters, one a psychopathic killer played by Bardem who is later revealed to be chasing Josh Brolin’s character, who stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong, takes the money, and we later meet a sheriff (Jones) who tried to protect Brolin and his family, and a bounty hunter (Harrelson) who tried in vain to stop Chigurh (Bardem). Confused? Trust me, it sounds more confusing than the actual movie, or the book. Having read the book, I have to say that this is probably one of the only instances than the book is not as good as the movie.
Javier Bardem may be a stranger to most Americans, but he is an established international star who had made movies with Milos Forman, Pedro Almodovar, Julien Schnabel, and Michael Mann. He was the paralyzed man in “The Sea Inside,” and he had collaborated with Penelope Cruz, Johnny Depp, and Sean Penn. I am personally familiar with the work of the actor, and it came to be as no surprise that the Coen Brothers chose him, except that I really did not foresee him being such a creepy and frightening presence. How can I describe Anton Chigurh? All I can do is to ask you to imagine a less well educated, but likewise polite, and even more brutal Hannibal Lecter who doesn’t eat people. Yeah, that’s the best I can do.
Aside from Bardem’s acting, the other actors were superb as well. Especially Tommy Lee Jones. His role reminded me of his performance in “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”, which featured a similarly hard-boiled character with a similarly unforgiving landscape. Josh Brolin is everywhere this year, including “American Gangster”, “In the Valley of Ellah”, and “Grindhouse”. He’s been busy and it’s no wonder so many directors cast him. He brings toughness to his character that is just what this movie needs.
The movie is deeply influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, well, let’s face it, Hitchcock invented all chases. But I love the fact that the Coen Brothers stage no elaborate car chases lesser directors would surely have done so; instead, they use this movie as an observation post to let the audience discover the characteristics of the characters by themselves. It takes guts to make a movie as good, as edgy, and as uncompromising as this one. Infused with sharp humor that has become the Coen Brothers’ signature, “No Country for Old Men”, with not doubt in my mind and among stiff competition from other great movies, was the best movie of 2007. It was also the best movie from the last 20 years, best since Wim Wender’s magnum opus “Wings of Desire” in 1987.
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