Rated R for strong graphic violence and some language.
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (Oh Brother Where Art Thou, Fargo…)
Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Javier Bardem…
I really enjoyed this film, but I can’t give in to all the other critics that are raving about this film. I liked it… it’s well worth the rent. But I can’t rate it any better than that because it was just too dang obscure.
Yes, the Coen brothers have sometimes given us obscure. I can handle a little obscure. Take Barton Fink for instance: as the movie ends the audience was left with nothing more than, “Huh?” (How’s that for an educated description?)
Such was No Country for Old Men. I can honestly say that I only followed about 70% of what happened. But this might not be a bad thing if the answer is in the film somewhere. I don’t know, because I didn’t go out to the ticket booth, buy another ticket and sit through the entire film again. But I can honestly say that if I was watching it at home on DVD I would have probably started the whole thing again and watched the entire movie one more time (and I’ve only done that with a handful of films, one being The Usual Suspects.)
The film is hard to even describe to you. So hear it goes in one big freaking sentence. Basically, a bunch of people start getting killed by an eerie hitman and a mad group of drug dealing Mexicans after a redneck piece of trailer trash stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande.
Think “White Trash Fargo”… but without as much humor.
The positive:
Tommy Lee Jones is great as usual, and foreign actor Javier Bardem is incredible. He gets my vote for the creepiest bad guy in the last decade (easily trumping Peter Stormare‘s role in Fargo).
The photography and the sound was incredible. What can I say. The Coen Brothers are masters.
The negative:
What happened??? Way too obscure.
The pacing was a little slow. Typical Oscar bait (it will probably win a bunch). But I’m just a little to A.D.D. for films like The English Patient.
SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
Nope. Way too violent, and they’d be bored anyway.
Side Note:
As said above, we don’t recommend your kids see this film. But on the occasion that they actually have already seen it, you may want to dialogue about the film with them. These questions below may be a help to you.
Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):
- What are some of the messages or themes you observed in this movie?
- How do you suppose we—as serious Christ-followers—should react to this movie?
- How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions?
