In what is easily the Coen Brothers’ best film since Fargo, not only do we get one of the most dastardly villains in the history of cinema with Anton Chigurh played by Javier Bardem, but a first rate crime thriller to boot. Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, No Country is a taunt, psychological mind game about the fallacy of easy money and daring to think that you’re smarter than the other guy while still lacking in ruthlessness. A talented cast brings this tale to life, led ably by seasoned law man Tommy Lee Jones, but it’s Bardem that brings the heat.



In the middle of the Texas desert, a hunter named Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds a scene of a drug deal gone badly and a bunch of dead Mexicans. Following the sole survivor to the place he dropped dead, Llewelyn finds a satchel filled with millions of dollars in drug money. Naturally, he takes it for himself. Soon though, Llewelyn realizes that the money’s rightful owner has sent Chigurh (pronounced ‘Sugar’ with a long r), a frightening man with a mop-top haircut, a surly disposition and an air gun, to collect what’s theirs. Meanwhile, the local sheriff (Jones) is trying his best to keep up with what’s going on and keep Llewelyn from getting too much deeper into trouble.



No Country for Old Men is also not a movie for heroes or about heroes. It can almost been seen as a morality play. Obviously Llewelyn should have reported the scene right off and turned in the money to the authorities, but he made the decision to keep it and bring the wraith of Chigurh upon him. Interestingly, the story seems to have no real beginning and it has no real end; the story is self-contained but there’s no sense that anything’s resolved and we still have no idea how it all began.



There’s a great line where another “collector” played by Woody Harrelson is asked just how dangerous is Chigurh and he says, “Compared to what? The bubonic plague?” Chigurh is the embodiment of cold hard fate, the expressionless force of nature that calls you to account without pity or prejudice. His own motivations are left unclear and that makes him all the more frightening in his determination to find Llewelyn and get the money.



As for Josh Brolin, this is really turning out to be a great year for him between this and his role as a dirty cop in American Gangster. Llewelyn is an everyman worth rooting for, but the Coens in script and direction make no qualms that he’s in over his head, his fate as much as question mark as anything in life. He’s not a dumb, with perhaps the exception of underestimating of Chigurh as an adversary, but Llewelyn is a reasonably clever man. But the questioned posed is whether the way it ends for Llewelyn is a matter of fate or a matter of greed?



Meanwhile, Tommy Lee Jones once again finds himself in the position of playing the law man. He’s an expert at this part by now, but Jones isn’t the sardonic he-man of law enforcement like he was in The Fugitive or even Men in Black; he’s old, tired and more than a little more than taken aback at the insanity in the violence that surrounds him, even in his back water jurisdiction. We get that great, dry Jones delivery, but there’s a hollowness to it that makes you feel sorry for this poor sheriff, he belongs to a different time and this case he’s involved is almost completely beyond his ability to control.



The film is beautifully shot and tightly paced in the story department as you watch an elaborate cat and mouse game unfold. Interestingly, the Coens went with the decision to not use music at all in the film. Of course, music in film is often used to further provoke an emotional response, but No Country actually achieves the same effect with the opposite approach. You don’t even notice at first that you’re not hearing a soundtrack and then your left with the emotion of the thing rather then waiting for the musical emotional cues.



Basically, No Country for Old Men is a first rate crime thriller with wicked acting and some of the best writing story-wise all year. It’s chilling and exciting with perhaps one of the best cinema villains ever making an impression no sooner then when he gets on screen.