Grim, but well rendered . Review on No Country for Old Men Movie

‘No Country For Old Men’ is a  grim drama of deviltry that is none too striking for what it has to say, but it does appear rather marked for how well crafted it is as a movie. Here a 2005 neo-western novel by American author Cormac McCarthy becomes perfect fodder for the film-noir craft, practiced with much relish by the Coen duo(Joel and Ethan) over the last few years through such fare as Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Man Who Wasn’t There etc.

The near screenplay-ready, brisk, and brutally veracious story by  McCarthy  was perhaps a bit too irresistible and a bit too low hanging a fruit for the Coen brothers to just let go. And, having grabbed it enthusiastically, both by both their hands, they go about it very meticulously, staying true to the book, and its dark content, to let it unfold just as eerily as prescribed by it, with an inarguably perfect cast, and the riveting performances they extract from it.

The setting is the badlands of the southwest border of Texas and the times are the drugs-and-guns infested 1980s, where a deadly cat and mouse chase begins, that leaves in its wake a gruesome trail of death and destruction. The mouse, the hunted, in this case is ironically an antelope hunter, and a Vietnam veteran, Llewellyn Moss, whose greed gets the better of him to make him run off with a sachet of cash(two million dollars) from a scene of a drug deal related carnage that he stumbles across, during one of his hunting expeditions. The cat, the hunter, is a psychopathic killer, Anton Chigurh, whose unrelenting hunt is further aided by a hidden transponder in the missing sachet, and whose wrath is further aggravated by the stubbornness and resiliency of his desired prey. Along the way the chase gets just a little more intriguing with the introduction of a second cat on the prowl, a swaggering hit man, Carson Wells, who tries to strike a deal with the fugitive Moss, in exchange for sanctuary and security. The good, amidst all this mayhem and ornery is represented by the Sheriff, Ed Tom Bell, a World War II veteran, who is sadly no match to all this greed and evil.(Hence, the title of the book and movie, which is a line from a 1928 poem ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ of symbolist Irish poet W B Yeats, a Nobel laureate.). Mr Bell, however, is very bold, stoic, and selfless in his determination to persuade Moss to turn himself in, and to save him and his wife, Carla Jean, from the looming peril.

Sounds quite engrossing, doesn’t it? Yes, and it stays that way, till the chase comes to a, well, not even a screeching, halt, all of a sudden, when the whole thing ends with a blip, as if the power went out. A bit too melodramatic ending, in its own muted way!  It’s a coda that chooses to belabor the point, in case you missed it through the story’s gory proceedings, and one which throws more loose ends at you than you care to pick up, as you get up from the chair, leaving you as frustrated as you are curious. Bell’s closing remarks, preceding the untimely death, of the story, that is, as captured through his reflective conversations with a friend and his wife, add to, and get drowned in the disinterest that sets in with the unexpected deceleration.

If you can put the rueful ending aside, there is much to credit this movie with. And a lot of that is to do with how deftly the Coens practice their craft. It shows in the way they move with their camera, very painstakingly, in the outdoors and indoors to create the right ambience; and in the way they direct their cast to bring to life the morbidity, horror(with a Hitcockian touch), and the forbearance of the story. Some of the details, of techniques for killing and survival, are quite galling, but they make up for those with an equal helping of subtle and allusive(yet chilling, as in when the killer looks down to check for blood stains on his shoe heels) touches of spare-me-the-details-please to just move on quietly with the narration. McCarthy’s book gives them a generous helping of some sardonic humor which they gladly and sincerely bake into the script, although the Texan English, with its own vernacular and grammer, is a lot more fun, and easier, to read than to hear, especially with the strong touch of authentic accent that the Coens opted for.

Spanish actor, Javier Bardem, as the devil-incarnate in the role of Chigurh looks quite convincingly scary, and deranged. Josh Brolin as the die-hard fugitive Moss does a good job of looking as scared as he is defiant. Tommy Lee Jones as the Sheriff brings out the compassion and care so very effectively. Woody Harrelson(as Wells) and Kelly McDonald(as CarlaJean) provide excellent support.

Photography by Roger Deakins is very crisp, and makes you wish the content wasn’t as vitiated.