What would you do if you discovered $2 million in untraceable, unmarked bills – drug money no one would miss? That’s the question pondered in No Country for Old Men, the latest film from the Coen Brothers.
The winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem), No Country tells the story of Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin). While out hunting, Moss discovers the dead bodies of a number of Mexican drug runners caught in the crossfire of a drug deal gone bad. There’s a pickup truck filled with heroin and a suitcase with $2 million in cash. Leaving the drugs, Moss takes the suitcase and discovers one of the drug runners is still living. Leaving him for dead, Moss returns home to his trailer with the money only to have his conscience get the best of him. He returns to the crime scene with some water to help the wounded dealer and it is then he is discovered by some of the other dealers.
At this point, the dealers hire Anton Chigurh (Barden), a ruthless hit man who uses a captive bolt pistol used to stun cattle before slaughter as his murder weapon of choice, to find Moss. The dealers have placed a transponder inside the suitcase and gave Chigurh a receiver to track Moss.
What follows is a nerve-wracking chase through Texas and into Mexico. Meanwhile, Moss’ wife, Carla Jean (played by Kelly Macdonald) flees to Odessa where she is to meet up with her husband after he takes care of Chigurh. Knowing Moss is in over his head against Chigurh, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (played by Tommy Lee Jones) tracks down Carla Jean in Odessa and vows to help Moss. Bell is near retirement and represents the old man in the movie title, who can’t understand the violent turn the world around him has taken.
No Country for Old Men features breathtaking cinematography and performances worthy of all its Oscar glory. While the middle of the film drags a bit, the beginning and ending are riveting and keep the viewer’s attention. The confrontations between Moss and Chigurh as well as Bell and Chigurh are as heart-stopping as any action scenes in recent memory and the film is definitely worth a look.
The DVD includes 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound and three featurettes: Working with the Coens, The Making of No Country for Old Men and Diary of a County Sheriff.
