No Country for Old Men - 7.0

No Country for Old Men, the newest Coen brother production, is a throwback to their early filmmaking days, a suspense-filled thriller reminiscent of Blood Simple. It tells the story of a regular guy (Josh Brolin) who finds a bunch of money in a small Texas town (presided over by sheriff Tommy Lee Jones) and then is hunted by a maniacal killer (Javier Bardem) in search of said money. From cinematography to sound to editing, the film is impeccably put together with every single scene and every single shot serving its purpose. The dialogue is also outstanding - realistic, clever, and articulate at times, without being too verbose. And the acting is also superb, with the three leads all turning in fantastic performances. Tommy Lee Jones and Bardem seem to be receiving most of the accolades but Josh Brolin more than held his own in what really was the lead role in the film. Technically, this is close to a perfect movie. So those are the good things...all very important of course but in my opinion No Country suffered because it was almost too polished and well-put together. I admire and appreciate the skill of the Coen brothers but where's the heart? Tommy Lee Jones' character provides some, Josh Brolin's wife a little more, but it just didn't quite do it for me in this completely subjective, unquantifiable area. I guess the best way I could put it is like this: this movie did so well to build so much suspense but I still never found myself really caring what happened to the main characters, which I wouldn't say defeats the purpose of building suspense but perhaps at least dampens it. My other quasi-problem was the ending. Not to spoil too much but lets just say the ending doesn't provide a whole lot of closure. I normally am a fan of open-ended endings (like Pan's Labryinth for example, was the fantasy world real or just her imagination?) but Jeremy made a legitimate point regarding No Country. He argued that the way the Coens ended the movie was a cop-out because they had written themselves into a corner and couldn't think of a way to provide a satisfactory conclusion. I'm not sure I agree with this or not, right now I'm kind of torn. My guess is I probably won't have a strong opinion one way or another until I watch this movie again (and honestly, I could easily see this movie gaining a lot from a 2nd viewing, I'm afraid I may have missed some of the subtleties). Oscar Outlook No Country for Old Men with its rave reviews (96% on rottentomatoes) is obviously a huge Oscar contender. It looks like a good bet to at least get nominations for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actor for Bardem. I personally think both Brolin (lead actor) and Tommy Lee Jones (supporting) gave Oscar-worthy performances and will be in the mix for nominations but there will be so much competition out there, it'll be tougher for them to find a spot than Bardem in the flashier role as the crazed killer. Basically, No Country looks like a good bet for nominations in several big categories but the tougher question is, does it have a chance to win any of these? For Best Picture, my thinking is that if both NCFOM and There Will Be Blood are nominated, they will split the vote of those looking for a technically brilliant, superbly acted independent drama and that some other 'bigger' movie will sweep through and take the prize (Atonement? The Kite Runner?). I think that NCFOM has a better shot at director, especially since the overall quality of the film could very well be seen as almost entirely a product of the influence of the Coens. It also has a great shot at supporting actor, it'll be interesting to see how the competition shakes out but it looks like Bardem is currently the front-runner. Adapted screenplay will be a really tough category, with a bunch of the other big overall contenders providing competition (There Will Be Blood, Atonement, The Kite Runner, and American Gangster could be the other four nominees) so it's really hard to say. But a movie like this is definitely more likely to get rewarded for screenplay than picture. Predictions Best Picture Nomination Best Director Win - I'm waffling on this one because I haven't seen many of the other big contenders but I'm thinking the Coens will be only the second ever pair (I think this is right) to share best director (this also happened with West Side Story). Best Supporting Actor Nomination for Bardem - could easily win but I'm guessing (and really it is just a guess) that he won't Best Adapted Screenplay Win - the Coens get two wins, I feel much more confident about this prediction than the directing one.