No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men is not for everyone, in fact, I’d say it’s only for a very narrow section of the public. I’m sure the Coens are very satisfied with it, you can’t deny the film has a distinctive style, but what good is that when I almost fell asleep? The plot moves forward very slowly, and in some places it feels that it doesn’t move at all. The shots of the desert landscape (room, car…) are beautiful, but they could have been shorter and less static. I must praise Javier Barden’s amazing performance, without it the experience would have been barely half as good. (04/08/2008)

A very different and original film. The Coens have finally stopped messing around with the awkwardly rough comedies that I found so desperately boring and instead made a hard-hitting film without humor, with an atmosphere that could be cut with a knife and action scenes that could be in a film textbook; without a single slow-motion shot, absolutely unpredictable, raw, brutal, realistic, and excellent. The only thing that bothered me was the storyline with the peculiar policeman Tommy Lee Jones. His lamenting over the old times that will never return somehow didn't fit well with the tough story about two tough guys competing for a hefty bundle of money. (12/07/2008)

I don't mind anything about this film, not even the fact that the Coens’ gave more space to Cormac McCarthy's style than to their own. Their contribution to the excellent template is, above all, precise technical packaging and the traditionally great choice of types. I will never forget Bardem's evil eyes, Brolin's mustache and appearance evoke the tough guys of the 1970s, and Tommy Lee Jones is just as scared and old-fashioned as Sheriff Bell is supposed to be. The broken structure of the story, the missing threads of motivation and the denial of violence as cool props - No Country for Old Men is not a matter of great exaggeration, but rather of chilling black humor. It is a portrait of a world that used to have its protectors of good and its firm laws, but now there is nothing left. Perhaps just the coin from 1958. Call it! The Oscar did not miss the mark this year. (17/03/2008)

I don't give a damn about journalistic glorification, this film is strong in the details, but unremarkable as a whole. Let's shed a tear at the memory of the brilliant Fargo, the Coens have been getting a bit stale in the last four years. I missed a twist (semi-pathologically spoken moralities don't make a film witty), I missed the Coens' greatest weapon, which has always been a strong story, I missed their typical sense of absurdity and exaggeration, I missed quite a lot here. Bardem's assassin, the character that carries the whole, is neither substantial nor interesting enough that I would already, as overseas publicists are doing with gusto, place this essentially very simple film alongside famous classics. I expect something more from an "unforgettable" film than a banal chase and a one-man-show of one violent mind. Sorry, guys. I attribute the mostly ecstatic enthusiasm for this piece to the well-deserved reputation the talented brothers have earned over their career. (09/01/2008)

An atmospheric and chilling, deadly quiet and coldly rough thriller, with the unique creative signature of the Coen brothers. In the end, it tries to look like great art and the audience has no problem buying it. After a few ventures into comedy, the Coen brothers have returned to the genre where I like them most. My teenage nightmares were haunted by Michael Myers; today it’s going to be Javier Bardem’s killer. And not even the sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones can save me from him. (19/02/2008)