No Country for Old Men is bleached with violence. But the menace remains, so the gore doesn’t deaden you to the story. I haven’t read Cormac McCarthy’s book, but the Coen brothers certainly know how to make a movie which doesn’t feel like anything you’ve seen before.
The Texas countryside is beautiful, but blasted by sun and wind. The characters continue on set paths, with no deviation or options. Still, your interest in the pursuit remains, even if you know how it will all end. The only disappointment was the final five or ten minutes, where Tommy Lee Jones demonstrates how he’s lost his way, retiring from the sheriff job which has been his whole life. The film drifts off, too. It’s very deliberate, but I glanced at my watch during this sequence. Overall, though, there’s no looking away from a powerful, interesting movie.
Jones is, by the way, perfect for the role. At times, you wonder if he’s acting, or just doing a riff on local history, since he was born in Texas, and lives there now.
Metacritic delivers an expected high score: 91.