Sailing to byzantium - "No Country for Old Men" (2007)

Jen’s not going to like us after this, but we loved this movie. In the way you love getting a really big, nasty splinter out – it’s not fun and it’s usually gross, but damn it’s satisfying at the end!

This was an incredible movie, and like so many of the Coen brother’s pictures (where so much rests on their shoulders as editors, directors, writers and producers) it is truly a joy when it all comes together. The film, based very closely on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, follows one of the oddest cat and mouse games ever played out on screen; absolutely epic at times, yet fundamentally simple and tragically inevitable without once being predictable.

This is definitely not for the squeamish as the main bad guy’s weapon of choice is a cattle stunning captive bolt pistol and everyone ends up bleeding profusely at some point. The hitman who is the source of much blood shed is played with understated, psychopathic glee by Javier Bardem who deservedly won the Best Actor Oscar for this role, despite initially turning it down because he couldn’t drive, spoke bad English and hates violence! You really couldn’t pick it!!!

Tommy Lee Jones delivers such a peaceful and solid performance that it encouraged us to watch “The Missing” that same weekend, just to keep watching him (of course that was a mistake), but he is really enjoyable in his role as the small town sheriff dismayed at the creatures he finds invading his world and knowingly outclassed by their sheer bravado and psychopathy.

This is not a happy story, and not one to watch when you’re distracted, but it’s well worth the effort of paying some attention and allowing yourself to get caught up and taken away by the character’s and their journeys. I gave it 83/100 (it lost points on social relevance and ‘did it make you think’ and Mat gave it 92/100 because he liked the idea of the comment on an increasingly violent society and the people who are sometimes ill-equipped to deal with such evil. While we loved “Juno” which was also up for Best Pic that year, we think this did deserve the coveted Best Picture Oscar for 2007.