Thoughtful, abstract, beautiful, and absolutely thrilling, the masterful Coen Brothers have excelled themselves again with this intelligent modern western.
The ensemble acting is phenomenal. The standout performance is, of course, Javier Bardem as psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh. His creation is the creepiest, nastiest, most inhuman nightmare anyone could ever hope to meet (but if you did, he’d probably kill you too). Josh Brolin is also very tough as flawed hero Llewelyn Moss. But the glue that holds the film together is Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Bell. It’s a perfect role for Jones, and takes advantage of his wrinkled face and slow drawl to depict a man out of his depth in the modern world, longing for the simplicity of the days of old.
Set in 80s Texas, the opening tableau shows a selection of landscape shots, each one with the sun a little higher in the sky. By the time local hunter Llewlyn Moss has arrived on the scene, the harsh desert light almost blinds us. One can almost feel the crackling heat radiating from the screen. Widescreen framing is used to full effect: when a drug deal gone wrong is first revealed to us from the vantage point of a rocky bluff, the bullet-ridden dead bodies look like little ants in the far distance.
The suspense is killer. Hitchcock would be sick with jealousy. In particular, take the scene with Brolin holed up in a hotel room as Bardem’s deliberate footsteps clomp ever closer. It’s edge-of-the-seat stuff, and absolutely thrilling. The Coens take delight in peppering the soundtrack with tiny details; a key turning in a lock, the click of a light switch, the minimalist beep of a radio transmitter.
It comes as some surprise, then, to learn that the thematic concerns of the piece don’t simply rely on quickening the audience’s heartbeat. In fact, the third act of the film may come as a shock. In many ways it abandons the taut thriller structure that has thus far been established, and becomes instead a quiet inward-looking contemplative look at the changing face of evil. On immediate viewing, this may seem something of a downer; a fizzling out into something more obscure, leaving some of us scratching our heads and others vocally outraged. But, on reflection, it’s an intelligent and thoughtful way to conclude a cracker of a film. It will leave you with something to think about.
Noone has commented yet. Sad.