No Country for Old Men

With a masterful dose of horror, humour, true lyricism and efficient frugality, the brothers Ethan and Joel Cohen excel in their latest award-winning film. In their adaptation of the novel by Cormac McCarthy about a failed and totally derailed crime, greed, violence and revenge become intertwined. In a parched Texan landscape, the hunter Llewelyn Moss happens upon a suitcase full of money. He finds it in an open space where the crash has just taken place between criminals. There are no survivors. Moss is not stupid and realises that it won’t be long before somebody comes and demands the money. He’s right. He doesn’t only find the local sheriff on his trail, but the unrelenting, monstrous Anton Chigurh also turns up. A tense cat and mouse game ensues in which Moss manages to stay ahead of his pursuers all the time, until a confrontation becomes inevitable. As usual, the Coen Brothers take advantage of spicy dialogue, expressive violence, plenty of suspense and an undertone of extremely black humour. In addition, No Country for Old Men is full of narrative silences in which the clock ticks more than ever. The masters of the crime genre follow the plot laid out in the novel fairly closely. However this allows itself to be turned into an action film filled with unpredictable and breathtaking plot twists with visual melancholy and ironic homespun philosophy.

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