(I think I'm comfortable giving this movie a 2.7; nothing more, nothing less).
I want to start off this review by paraphrasing Albert Einstein:
If I can’t explain it in my review, then I probably didn’t understand it to begin with.
If you’ve seen the movie and you’ve read my review, you will get why I wanted to mention that.
This is a Coen Brother’s movie. If you have seen any of their other movies, then you might have a slight clue as to what you’re getting yourself into. When it comes to directing a movie, they are just something else. Something I can’t quite put my finger on. This might seem like an odd thing to say in a review, but when you go to watch a Coen Brother’s movie, you have to adjust to a different state of mind. I don’t want to say that you should think outside the box, but you have to be prepared for things not to make sense.
The first time I saw this movie was when it was released in 2007. If I’m not mistaken, this was the first Coen Brother’s movie I had seen. I watched Burn After Reading in 2008 when it was released, and I’m pretty sure I watched Fargo and The Big Lebowski after that. I can say with certainty that I liked this movie more the first time I saw it. That’s not to say that I don’t like it now, but I guess my thoughts on it have faded as the years have passed.
I would not call this movie brilliant. But this movie deserves praise because I think this movie is the perfect example of a slow-paced movie that keeps you on your toes. It’s not a full-out action movie with loud bangs and screeching tires. It’s slow, dark, and serious. There were parts that I got really sucked into. It left me with a lump in my throat and me holding my breathe. The movie did that very well.
Javiar Bardem (as Anton Chigurh), Tommy Lee Jones (as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell), and Josh Brolin (as Llewelyn Moss) all did a fantastic job. Going into this movie I’d have to say that I thought TLJ would by my favourite, but coming out, I can’t say I liked any of the characters. Usually a movie has distinct characters with regards to being good or bad. When you think about it, you don’t really know who the ‘good guy’ is. Yes, TLJ’s is a sheriff, but aside from being a law enforcement representative, he doesn’t really do a whole lot of good in this movie. The viewer doesn’t get any explanation as to why Anton Chigurh is after the money, and we also don’t know anything about Llewelyn Moss. I didn’t know who, if anybody, I was supposed to root for. And I think this is adds to the confusion of the overall movie and why people have said they don’t understand it.
Usually when you watch a movie you can figure out the moral of the story by the time you leave the theatre. The weird thing about this movie is that even when you sleep on it, and give it some more thought, it’s still hard to figure out. I wasn’t entirely sure what the point was. When I did think about it a bit more, I came to the conclusion that the moral is very ambiguous. It’s up to each individual person who sees this movie to take away whatever they see fit. This is a movie that’s hard to wrap your head around. And I’m not the only one that thinks that. I read a few reviews on IMDB that said they didn’t understand it either. I don’t want to say I didn’t understand it because I believe I did. I understood it in a way that my brain allowed me to understand it. Again, my interpretation of it, is that every viewer will understand this movie in different ways.
Like I said earlier, trying to explain a Coen Brother’s film is not an easy task. This movie isn’t for everyone and I’d be very selective about who I’d recommend it to.
***SPOILER ALERT : DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE***
For anyone that has seen this movie and is curious as to what I got from this movie was this:
-The good guy doesn’t always win.
-You have to know when to back down and not try to be a hero.
-Things may not always work out the way you expect.
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