No Country for Old Men

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Silence has never been so excruciatingly terrifying as it registers in this latest film from the Coen brothers, based on a 2003 novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy.

Though Carter Burwell has a music credit, there's actually little heard -- and the dialogue mostly understated -- in "No Country for Old Men" (Miramax/Paramount Vantage), an absolutely spellbinding, richly detailed thriller set in the southwest Texas borderlands circa 1980.

One day while he's hunting, hardworking, decent welder and Vietnam vet Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon several abandoned cars and dead men strewn about, the apparent victims of a drug deal gone bad.

He leaves the drugs but takes the briefcase packed with millions of dollars and returns home to his sweet wife, Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald).

Having the money, though, marks him as target of the drug criminals' henchman, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a cold-blooded, psychopathic killer with no compunctions about annihilating anyone in his path. The only possible chance a victim might have is the flip of a coin, emblematic of McCarthy's theme of the role of chance in human destiny. The coin-flip routine is dramatized to chilling effect in an early scene between Chigurh and a wary elderly shopkeeper in which the sense of unspoken menace is palpable.

Llewelyn knows he must leave town, so he sends the reluctant Carla Jean to her mother's place in Odessa, and hightails it with the cash, with Chigurh in ruthless pursuit.

Meanwhile, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a small-town sheriff trying his best to cope with a new kind of violence in a rapidly changing world, pursues them both hoping to avert tragedy.

Co-directors and writers Joel and Ethan Coen create an atmosphere of almost unbearable tension, in a landscape that feels achingly bleak.

The leads are brilliant, but then so is every member of the cast, which also includes Woody Harrelson as Carson Wells, a bounty hunter also trailing the cash, and Tess Harper as Bell's supportive wife, Loretta.

Beyond the thriller and chase genre aspects, the film is structured as a series of brilliantly characterized conversations between the principals and the myriad locals with whom they interact, each illuminating the human condition in a highly perceptive way. These guileless, trusting, plain-spoken folk are seemingly incapable of comprehending the apathetic evil before them, and when they do, they react with surprising fortitude.

The film is redolent with themes about the struggle between good and bad, the changing ethos of the West, temptation, honor and sacrifice.

The violence, though sometimes extremely brutal and bloody, is only shown to the extent dramatically necessary -- mainly to prove that Chigurh will stop at nothing -- but once that harsh fact is established, his deeds are not graphically portrayed. And despite the grim events depicted, the script is not without dry humor.

The intense suspense -- and periodic violence -- is not for the faint of heart, but this fine, morally complex film ranks as cinematic storytelling at its best.

The film contains strong violence and multiple killings with blood, occasional rough language and profanity, and brief partial nudity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops