No Country For Old Men Review

I consider myself to be a pretty intelligent individual, and a particularly discerning moviegoer who doesn't need to have everything spoon-fed to him, but honestly — someone needs to email me, or call me or facebook me or whatever to explain the last 20 minutes of this movie.

Honestly, I want to understand it, because the first 100 minutes of "No Country for Old Men" were some of the finest and definitely the most suspenseful in any movie this year.

The Coen Bros. adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel is brilliantly acted, beautifully shot and I just don't want my final impression of such a fantastic movie to be complete bewilderment.

The story concerns a welder named Llewelyn Moss who stumbles across a bunch of dead bodies and a bag full of $2 million. Of course when that much money goes missing, there are going to be people looking for it, and Moss spends most of the movie avoiding the shady figures on the trail of the cash, including the psychotic Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) and easygoing, reflective Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones).

To give away more would be to deprive you of some of the most effective suspense I've seen in a long time. The Coens effectively choose to do away with most of the quirks that usually populate their movies (quirks that I thoroughly enjoy, by the way) like "Fargo", "The Big Lebowski" and "O' Brother Where Art Thou". They also use stunning cinematography. Those Texas plains look incredible, and tiny motel rooms are appropriately claustrophobic and come off as the scariest places in the world. Cinematographer Roger Deakins has the Oscar in the bag.

The performances are also fantastic. Josh Brolin continues his winning streak (after impressing in Death Proof, In the Valley of Elah and American Gangster) this year as the resourceful Moss. Many of his scenes include little or no dialogue, but Brolin (with help from the Coens) still makes Moss compelling and someone you can become invested in.

Tommy Lee Jones is also terrific as the folksy Sheriff Bell, making his character feel essential to the film despite the fact that he remains in the periphery for the most part. Woody Harrelson (as another party interested in the money) and Kelly Macdonald (as Moss's wife) also make strong impressions in smaller roles.

Then there's soon-to-be Oscar nominee Javier Bardem as Chigurh, who's crated one of the scariest film villains of the new millennium. His imposing figure, dorky haircut, creative killing methods and out-of-place Spanish accent only add to the character's mystique, lending him an almost supernatural aura.

And that's actually, I think, where the Coens kinda lost me. ***POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT, BUT NOT REALLY*** I don't dare give away too much or anything of the ending, but I'll just say (having never read the novel on which the movie was based) that the film's detour into the sublime was a bit too jarring for my taste because it followed what was mostly a relatively straightforward thriller.

Now here's what I'm NOT going to do. I'm not going to proclaim the ending is brilliant just because I don't understand it, so it must mean that its artistry is dazzling beyond my understanding.

Another thing I'm not going to do completely is trash it the final sequence of events because I don't get it. Like I said, to me, this was a relatively straightforward thriller until the jarring detour, but I commend the Coens for trying to do something unexpected (or staying faithful to the book, which very well may be as confusing).

This movie is just too good to be completely dismissed in that way, but by the same token, an ending that may have worked in novel form may not necessarily work cinematically. So for now, I'm going ahead and faulting the Coens in that regard.

Still, I'm not ashamed to admit that I've already gone online to try to decipher that final sequence. Also, I'm already looking forward to watching "No Country for Old Men" again with a more watchful eye and trying to interpret the film's finale and fully appreciate one of the country's best filmmakers at the top of their games.

I can't think of too many other movies that made me want to do all of THAT this year.

No Country For Old Men...B