Wednesday, November 28, 2007

A Dark Meditation on Evil


The Coen Brothers latest film, No Country for Old Men is a film that I’d been looking forward to for a while and I wasn’t disappointed. It did have a different tone than previous films by them, but in thinking about the film afterwards and remembering their other films, it took a while for the world of the films to click for me. Boldly constructed with a palpable tension during the entire film, it’s an examination of evil, greed and human nature that is a slightly different, but completely consistent with their other films.
With a creepily effective performance from Javier Bardem as well as excellent work by Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, and Kelly MacDonald, it’s focused on the characters and the decisions that they make. Coen fans will see elements of most of their films along with some quirky and understated humour. It’s a film that is close to perfect with every shot and moment essential to the film and while there is some violence in the film, the Coens deal with violence in the most responsible way of any filmmakers today. It’s a great film and it’s wonderful to see them working at the peak of their powers again.