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Bring your expectations of standard Hollywood conventions to this movie and you’ll be left hanging in a big way. I always preach that it’s great to break the rules and veer away from the formulas in movies once in a while (check out this excellent article on “plot immunity” to whet your whistle on the subject), but resolution is not a convention that’s easy to let go. That’s the challenge of this latest Coen brothers’ trip. |
[SPOILER ALERT]
When the main protagonist was murdered off-camera midway through the film, the change in the focus of the film was visceral. But where did it go? Two major characters remained, the antagonist “Chigurh”, and Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. Chigurh was consistently portrayed as an unrelenting and indifferent serial killer – no subtleties there, no soul-searching, no change in direction to capture your attention. And Sheriff Bell is the overwhelmed “old man”, almost always taking the safer easy path over justice-fueled resolution. So after one of the most intense manhunts you’re likely to see in a film, you have to downshift into chaos (Chigurh) and flight (Bell). An interesting experience. But I won’t pick this one as my favorite Coen movie. I don’t need to feign art-critic sycophancy for the unconventional. I’m much more happy with the fabulous Coen schtick of a boatload of humor-laden and wacky secondary characters. And I got some of those, so I was happy. In the end, the Coen brothers never disappoint.
