Movie: No Country for Old Men

No country for old men poster

I haven't read it, but No Country for Old Men might actually be a good novel. However, not every good novel can be a good movie. The structure of a novel is much different than the structure of a movie, and what works in the book might not work on the screen.

The climax of the movie, or at least the action the whole movie was building up to comes about a half hour before the movie ends. What happens after that is basically an epilogue to the story. This is not that bad for a book, but it is absolutely fatal for a movie.

Since the Coen Brothers knew that the movie essentially ended 3/4 of the way through the movie, they decide to be purposefully vague with the climax. We don't really see the action as it happens. I believe the Coens did this to trick the audience to keep interest thinking the character that died in that part, even though his death is mentioned in the dialogue, might actually be coming back and the real ending might yet come. It never does.

But vague in this case is confusing. The hints are there to see what happened in this scene, but many people have got it wrong.

This tactic basically takes away from an otherwise excellent movie. It is well directed--the Coen's build suspense  like masters. The acting is great as well. Tommy Lee Jones does the world-weary part that has become his trademark. Javier Bardem is excellently creepy in the role of the killer. And Josh Brolin with this movie, American Ganster, and Grindhouse, has shown the chops of becoming on of the better actors working today. If he keeps this up, there will be an Oscar in his future.

The only other qualms I have about this is that more than one characters seem to have the mutant power of being able to locate Josh Brolin no matter where he is hiding--even in the most random of locations. I'm sure the novel goes into more of the legwork of how these characters found Brolin and it was cut from the movie for time, but it takes away from the believability.