I'm still not entirely sure what to make of Ethan and Joel Coen's No Country for Old Men (2007), a film so formally astonishing that I'm willing to recommend it even if the story has absolutely no emotional resonance, something I won't make too big a deal about after just one viewing. Surely there's quite a lot to be said about the immaculate construction of the narrative here, based on a book by Cormac McCarthy, as is evident in the thrilling set pieces scattered throughout (two of them among the best I've seen in any movie), but I'm not really sure it was all worth it in the end. Javier Bardem's chilling performance is something people will be talking about for some time, and it's almost certain that he'll take the Academy Award. I have a feeling my view on this one will change (for the better) when I see it again, hopefully in theatres. For now, I'll just say that it's a great suspense film, if not quite as viscerally gripping as Blood Simple (1984), to say nothing of the Coens' true masterpiece, The Man Who Wasnt There (2000), a film that had the nihilistic depth No Country was incessantly trying to find.
