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No Country for Old Men
USA 2007
produced by
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin, Robert Graf (executive), Mark Roybal (executive) for Miramax, Paramount (Paramount Vantage)
directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
starring Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Tess Harper, Barry Corbin, Stephen Root, Rodger Boyce, Beth Grant, Ana Reeder, Kit Gwin, Zach Hopkins, Chip Love, Eduardo Antonio Garcia, Gene Jones, Myk Watford, Boots Southerland, Kathy Lamkin, Johnne Hector, Margaret Bowman, Thomas Kopache, Jason Douglys, Doris Hargrave, Rutherford Cravens, Matthew Posey, George Adelo, Mathew Greer, Trent Moore, Marc Miles, Luce Rains, Philip Bentham, Josh Meyer, Chris Warner, Brandon Smith, Roland Uribe, Richard Jackson, Josh Blaylock, Caleb jones, Dorsey Ray, Angel H.Alvorado, David A.Gomez, Milton Hernandez, John Mancha, Scott Flick, Elizabeth Slagsvol
screenplay by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, music by Carter Burwell
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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In the middle of the Texan desert, Llewellyn (Josh Brolin) finds the
fresh remains of a bloody shootout which apparently noone but one person
(Eduardo Antonio Garcia) has survived, and he's on the verge of dieing and
begs Llewellyn for water. Llewellyn, just passing through, has of course
no water, but he soon figures the whole action was about a big load of
drugs and two million Dollar in cash. And while Llewellyn has no need for
the drugs, he happily takes the satchel of money to afford a better life
for himself and his wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald), who are nothing but
trailer trash, actually. However, Llewellyn is not a total badass, he has
something resembling a conscience - unfortunately for him, because once he
has hidden the money in his trailer he returns to the scene of teh crime
with a bottle of water, to give it to the dieing man ... not such a good
idea, since there have been some developments since the last time he was
there, like the drugs being gone, the man being shot, and Llewellyn all of
a sudden being hunted like an animal by some unknown gangsters - and he
only makes the narrowest of escapes ...
Suddenly Llewellyn realizes that taking the money and meddling with
affairs that have nothing to do with himself was not such a good idea,
however he is also reluctant to let go of the two millions in cash - so he
sends his wife to her mother (Beth Grant) and hides out in a cheap hotel,
taking all sorts of precautions to deal with even the worst ... and the
worst is of course to happen, as those after the money have hired Anton
Chigurh (Javier Bardem) to get it back, only Anton is not only an
extremely effective and versatile hitman, he is also a completely bonkers
psycho killer killing friend and foe alike - and now he has got his hands
on a tracer that will lead him to the transmitter hidden among all of the
money.
When Llewellyn finally realizes there's a transmitter in his satchel,
it's almost too late, and in a hotel he and Anton have a violent shootout
that leaves them both gravely wounded. Despite his injuries, Llewellyn
manages to hide the money in no-man's land between Texas and Mexico and
makes it over the border, where he is almost immediately hospitalized -
and wakes up to look right into the face of streetsmart bounty hunter
Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), who has been sent after Anton Chigurh to
relieve him of the money (once he has it), and Wells tries to make a deal
with Llewellyn - but when Llewellyn, still in pain, finally decides to
accept his offer, streetsmart Carson Wells has already been violently
taken out by Anton, who is once again very close to Llewellyn - but he's
not just a psycho, he's also smart enough to know that he can't kill him
before he gets his hands on the two million Dollars, because psycho or no
psycho, this is a lot of money. So he makes a deal with Llewellyn:
If he hands him over the money, Anton lets Llewellyn's wife Carla Jean
live - not that he has her in his power, he just knows where she is. He
promises not to spare Llewellyn's life though, because killing is just
what he does ...
Llewellyn appears to accept the deal, but then he once again tries to
outsmart Anton and tries to meet up with his wife in El Paso ... Carla
Jean meanwhile was clever enough to realize that Llewellyn has goten into
something over his head, so she informs her hometown sheriff (Tommy Lee
Jones) about his whereabouts and asks him for help, because whether
Llewellyn likes to admit it or not, he needs all of the help he can get.
However, when the sheriff arrives at the El Paso Motel where Llewellyn is
presently hiding out, he has already been shot dead, and Anton has gotten
his hands on the money after all. And suddenly the sheriff feels very old,
in more ways than one ...
Meanwhile, Carla Jean's mother has died too, and when Carla Jean
arrives home from her funeral, she finds Anton waiting for her. Now of
course, Anton doesn't have any concrete business with Carla Jean anymore,
he already has the money and Llewellyn is already dead - but he's a man of
principles and since he has promised to spare Carla Jean's life only if
Llewellyn delivers the money to him and Llewellyn didn't - well ...
Funny though that after he has killed her, Anton, who always covers all
the angles, is gravely injured in a trivial car accident he is at least
partly to blame for ...
Finally the Coen brothers are returning to top form: No Country for
Old Men is easily their best film since The
Big Lebowski, mainly because they are once again doing what they
do best, which is to make crime dramas based on strong screenplays full of
surprises with an ironic twist that even tends to make the occasional
violent outbursts hilarious. Plus like most Coen brothers films, this one
is full of strong character actors who all seem to have been born to play
the roles they play.
I actually can't say anymore than hgihly recommended !!!
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