Eye Candy #149 - "No Country for Old Men"

No Country for Old Men: Didn’t know quite what to think about this film when I first heard about it. The previews didn’t really grab me, nor did the Oscar hype. But I figured I’m a Coen Bros. fan, even if my tastes run more towards “The Big Lebowski” and “Raising Arizona” than “Blood Simple” and “Fargo”, but the Bros. rarely let me down. The story of an amoral criminal (Javier Bardem), a sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones, in his best performance of last year), and a man who stumbles on to a drug deal gone wrong and takes the money he finds (Josh Brolin, in his best acting job ever), and their paths crossing in southwestern Texas. It’s very much in the “New Western” vein. Violent (but subdued, though – the violence happens, but it’s never the point of the scene), stark, and engaging, but also a very quiet film (very, very little music for a Coens’ film, unusually so). It serves the theme of the violent underworld that is happening beneath the surface of most of our lives. The Coens didn’t dig too deep into their stock company this time around. Only Stephen Root is here (no Frances McDormand, no John Goodman, no Buscemi). The three leads are uniformly excellent, with Bardem an obvious standout playing the strongest screen villain in quite some time. Fewer absurd touches than usual (with Bardem’s weapon of a choice and a short vignette with a pit bull notwithstanding). After the disappointing “The Man Who Wasn’t There” and “The Ladykillers”, “No Country” is a return to fine form for the Coens and their best film since “O Brother Where Art Thou?”. Woodchuck sez, “Me likey so much, me buying it.”