No Country for Old Men, the newy from the Coen Brothers, is appearing on the top of best-of-2007 film lists everywhere at the moment - not that I didn't already want to see it anyway.
It tells the relatively simple story of a man (Josh Brolin) who finds a big bag of money at a drug deal in the Texas desert gone wrong and his attempts to keep it, pursued by all and sundry including awesomely, disturbingly calm and evil killer Javier Bardem and disillusioned old local sheriff Tommy Lee Jones.
The Coens make great use of the Texan environment in telling their story (just as they do with most of their films) and weave a twisting tale that features their usual blend of distinctive dialogue as well as tough people behaving as you might think they actually would in reality. There's a feeling of grim determination to this film and a slightly bleak sense at the end that captures the mood of the best of the film noir genre.
It's a little more violent than the average Coen bros film (but never gratuitously) but at the same time you kind of drift through it a little.
Critically it's been hailed as a return to their Fargo kind of form and I can see the parallels though as I say, this is a tougher film (not to watch, more in the characters in it).
Well worth a look. A good friend lent me another book by the writer of the book that this film is based on, Cormac McCarthy, called The Road. Think I might have to read this one first though.
