 Well acted, well written, great direction 14 of 15 people found this review helpful.
Terrifically acted, superbly written and masterfully directed by the Coen Brothers, this is an incredibly suspenseful thriller that looks set for Oscar glory come February.
Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, No Country For Old Men stars Josh Brolin (sporting the same moustache he's had in his last four films) as Llewelyn Moss, a loser who stumbles onto the scene of a drug deal gone horribly wrong in the Texas desert. He duly makes off with the drug money, unaware that vicious killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem with a comically awful hairdo) is on his trail and will stop at nothing to get the money back.
When Moss eventually realises how much trouble he's in, he sends his wife (Kelly Macdonald) into hiding, while desperately trying to stay one step ahead of the murderous Chigurh. Meanwhile, Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) doggedly pursues both men and discovers that he may well be out of his depth.
This is a welcome return to form for the Coen Brothers after the twin disappointments of Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. In terms of their previous films, No Country is like a stripped down version of Fargo with the idiosyncratic character-based comedy surgically removed and the suspense cranked up to eleven.
Bardem delivers a genuinely chilling performance as Chigurh (particularly when giving his unwitting victims a sporting chance to survive), while Brolin gives a terrifically noir-ish portrayal of a man trying to escape his fate and Jones is genuinely moving as the Sheriff. There's also a superb cameo by Woody Harrelson as a straight-talking bounty hunter and Kelly MacDonald adds a heart-breaking note of sweetness (and nails the Texan accent) as Moss' wife, Carla Jean.
The film is also beautifully shot by the Coens' regular cinematographer Roger Deakins and the various suspense sequences (particularly one involving a dog) are both brilliantly directed and heart-stoppingly tense.
No Country For Old Men is a gripping, powerful and ultimately devastating thriller that may well be the Coens' masterpiece. It is also, unquestionably, one of the best films of the year.
Review ID: 10000000007813746  Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours. You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later.   No Country For Old Men (DVD) 7 of 7 people found this review helpful.
1980. Sheriff Bell has ruled his small Texas border town for years without the use of a gun, but a new brand of reckless lawlessness has taken over his town. Llewelyn Moss is an innocent Everyman with a devoted wife, Carla Jean, but when he stumbles across a drug deal gone deadly and finds two million dollars, he's determined to keep it for himself. There's only one problem. He's being pursued by one of the most amoral, evil psychopaths that the big screen has ever seen. Wearing an absurd haircut and brandishing a pressurized weapon that's used to murder cattle, Anton Chigurh creeps forward on his mission to track Moss down and return the money to its rightful owners to save his own skin. As the tension mounts, the body count begins to rise, confirming Sheriff Bell's inability to battle this new wave of modern brutality.
Category: Thriller > General
Director: Ethan Coen
Starring: Kelly MacDonald , Stephen Root , Woody Harrelson , Tommy Lee Jones , Javier Bardem , Josh Brolin
Released 02 June 2008
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