No Country for Old Men

This is undeniably accomplished work by the Coen brothers and their usual creative team, but what exactly is accomplished by it? It’s apparently a faithful adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel, but I am no fan of his. It allows Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin to put effective flourishes on various macho stereotypes, on the way to delivering blood, mayhem, or their aftermath in nearly every scene. It uses all the resources of film to elicit suspense and dread, but ends up leaving nothing for our pains, or rather our pleasure at the pain of others. If you need more info than that, it’s a story about a big drug deal gone horrifically bad in the Texas desert, the hunter who stumbles on the result and makes off with the cash, and the various guys who come after him to get the money back. Violence ensues, in various quirky and horrific ways, graphic when it wants to be, and show-offy subtle when the point has been made (e.g. a longshot of the hit man coming out of a house and checking the bottom of his shoes for blood, after his latest unseen murder.) Well-made enough to have had an impact if it managed to bring itself round to a meaningful conclusion, the film ends with the shrug of a recounted dream that really left me feeling that I had been had. I have to admit I was along for the ride, but I had no use for the destination. (2007, Images, n.) *7---* (MC-91.)