the movieGOOMBA

3.5 GOOMBAS

I have trouble watching scary movies by myself. Hence, I tend not to blog about them because I've seen so few. I'll eventually try and rectify this deficiency because I made a new friend at work who happens to like horror/slasher films. She's 60 years old and still loves to be scared. I guess we can be scared together then. So No Country For Old Men had to be watched with company. I've been warned that this film can be very disturbing.

Winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director, No Country For Old Men is a suspense thriller about a greedy opportunist who finds himself in a sticky situation. While hunting out in the valley, Llewelyn Moss, comes across the remnants of a gun battle, and as he takes in the situation, he discovers a case full of money. Deciding to keep the money, he becomes the mouse in an elaborate chase for the fortune; the cat being a deranged serial killer with a crazy haircut.

Well thought out and intelligently crafted, No Country For Old Men is like Moby Dick; genius, yet entirely un-entertaining. I'm not saying that it was dull. The suspense and disturbing tension that predominates the film is 5 star, but as the ending approaches, the film increasingly becomes Coen-esque (i.e. weird). Conventional, key scenes slowly become omitted from the track, and I for one, almost lost the ball on the plot. "What, did she die? Huh? Did he die? What just happened? Where is he going?" were all questioned that I asked out loud. There was also a seemingly abrupt ending, accompanied with a seeming lack in resolution. However, for the Coen Brothers, it's always about motif, commanding themes, and prominent symbolism; usually never about the actual plot.

Each character in No Country For Old Men is a Coen-commentary on the people in our society and what our choices mean. The serial-killer, hit man - the epitome of evil (he's got the haircut to prove it; not to mention his weapon of choice establishes his complete detachment from normalcy); the cowboy, Llewelyn Moss - a man who makes bad choices (and is basically a bad person) but has a conscience; and Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a worn police detective who is a model citizen but has given up all hope on humanity. Each of the main characters is symbolic, and the ending is esoterically complex and original.

With all that said, I enjoyed the movie as much as I enjoy Mondays; not much. It was creepy and disturbing in all the right places, mostly due to a crazed Javier Bardem, but this film is for a very fine palette; one that I do not have. It's for the film artist, the complex thinker, and the Indie die hards. Not really for the movieGOOMBA's taste.