USA 2007
Starring : Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones
Directors : Ethan and Joel Coen

THE Coen brothers have been making movies together for over two decades - kicking off with what remains their sole masterpiece, Blood Simple (1984), and earning several Oscars and legions of worldwide fans with the likes of Miller's Crossing (1990), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998) and O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000). But while the pair have always worked as a very close team, up until 2003's misfiring legal comedy Intolerable Cruelty their projects were officially written by Ethan and directed by Joel. Their first official collaboration as directors, their crazily audacious, inventively hilarious remake of The Ladykillers, was ludicrously underappreciated on its 2004 release.

Now, as if to rectify their earlier oversight, many critics have been going an absolute bundle over their (inferior) follow-up, No Country For Old Men, which adapts Cormac McCarthy's surprise 2005 bestseller - a tale of stolen money, ruthless criminals, and a psychopathic hitman set in 1980 Texas - but can't overcome the book's structural inadequacies. Early and middle sections strike a bold and largely successful mix of dark comedy and existential drama, but the final act sees plot and mood unravel with the exit (perversely, offscreen) of its main protagonist, a happy-go-lucky chancer played by Josh Brolin. 

Something of a leading-man manque for a decade or so, Brolin is overdue such a meaty role and he rises to the challenge. He's overshadowed, however, by an outstandingly sinister/odd/amusing turn from Javier Bardem (as the psychopathic hitman) just a shame the picture has no idea how to end his character's story, either. On balance, this isn't by any means a bad movie - but nor is it any valid heir to Blood Simple, that much more successful example of 80s Texas noir. It certainly doesn't help that, as the end credits reveal, it was all shot in New Mexico - or that cinematographer Roger Deakins, who's done such great work with the Coens in the past (The Man Who Wasn't There), and whose other big 2007 film (The Assassination of Jesse James...) is a masterclass in the cinematographer's art, should be on relatively uninspired form.

Neil Young



original review (report from 2007 Viennale - Vienna International Film Festival)