p e n g u i n d e v i l

I went out to a theater yet again, this time to see a movie I’ve been wanting to see for a good while, No Country for Old Men. The story of a feller who stumbles upon the recent bloodbath of a drug deal gone wrong and wanders away with a satchel filled with money. While this would seem a blessing to most people, he of course, has to make the standard old mistake of returning to the scene of the crime (even though it wasn’t his crime, it is still always a bad idea). This bad idea leads, as one would expect, to some bad characters tracking him down to get their money back. As one might expect of someone who ends up holding a bag like this, he takes no shorts when it comes to keeping it in his hands, even risking his life and the life of his wife. It’s funny what people will do to keep possession of something that they don’t have any right to have.

His flight through the unpleasant scenery of Texas (as seen in the previously covered Three Burials but without the pretty cinematography), leaves a trail of death behind him, as he is being, oh too closely followed but a relentless killing machine. “Chigurh” is this remorseless man’s name, played by Javier Bardem who does a relentlessly good job as the villain and the chief character of this. Sadly, Chigurh’s weapon (or shtick, should I say) is a bit contrived for a movie, maybe more suitable to being read, but he still does a good job with what he’s given.. Josh Brolin is quite good as our foolish protagonist Llewelyn Moss. It also stars Tommy Lee Jones, who does a fine job, though not as great as in Three Burials.

While I like McCarthy’s books, this is the one book that I haven’t had an interest in reading, and while I love the Coen Brothers, after seeing this movie I wouldn’t expect the reaction that it is getting… I mean it’s a good movie, certainly better than the lion’s share of what comes out of Hollywood these days, with some nice drama, plenty of violence, an fun story and some good casting, but the characters aren’t that interesting and the story was fairly predictable. I would still recommend it, though, for people who like quiet dramas with maybe some helpings of violence in them. I don’t know if I am being overly harsh due to all the crazy Oscar action it got. I mean Atonement is the only other movie nominated for any sort of Oscar this year that I have seen, so I don’t know the competition and I don’t have much (any) respect for the Oscar’s anyway, but I am quite surprised at all the accolades this movie is receiving. in the last year or so it does seem like everyone and their dog has become a fan of anything with Cormac’s name on it, so maybe it’s just part of his current personality cult. Fame which is well-deserved, but it is one of those movies (like say, Platoon), that I have had too much of its fantasticness thrown in my face beforehand.

Though looking over the list of about 200 “wide-release” films of 2007 on Wikipedia, I guess I’ve only seen 8 of them, and No Country for Old Men is certainly one of the top three of those.