As I suspected, No Country For Old Men is better the second time. Without getting so shaken around by the tension and shocks you can really study each scene. And you can also follow what the hell is going on. (Yes, the movie makes 100% sense, actually.) Any misgivings I had about it the first time are gone. This movie is hot shit and actually has a point other than being flashy entertainment.
(My first review.)
Eh. It’s lukewarm shit at best. When you spend 90 minutes setting up a climactic confrontation between two evenly matched, skilled, violent people, and then kill one of them off-screen by a different hand, you’d better have something to say by it besides, “nyah nyah nyah, I’m the director and I get to mess with your expectations if I want.” They don’t replace it with anything except Tommy Lee Jones being old and tired. Hey Sherriff, if you’re sad and upset about this drug killer on the loose, how about getting out of the diner making an effort to catch him? Like check for fingerprints on the milk bottle he just drank from instead of pouring yourself a glass.
And I know it’s considered nitpicky to talk about plot holes, but I don’t carehow quiet things are in Texas, open up with a 12 guage in the middle of town and you’re going to wake someone up. Being Texas, they’ll probably return fire. And Mr. Big Time Drug Dealer doesn’t have some henchmen hanging around by the receptionist to slow down Antoine and his ridiculous “silenced” shotgun? I could go on. No way is it Best Picture.
I have to say that rozger is completely wrong. . .
This film is absolutely brilliant, especially on repeat viewings, and even moreso after reading the page-turning novel which it’s based on. And as strikingly intelligent as claiming that the Coens went “nyah nyah nyah, I’m the director and I get to mess with your expectations if I want,” is, not only was their approach to the material a tribute to the suspenseful style of Cormac Mccarthy, but it was at-times verbatim, providing a clear vision that undoubtedly made Mccarthy proud. Everything from Tommy Lee Jones’ acting and, more specifically, his voice-over work to Javier Bardem’s haunting performance as Chigurh to the likability of Josh Brolin as Moss and the heartbreak that comes in relation to his character is spot-on.
And that, Senor Hoffman, is why rozger is wrong. . .