Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 2.0
Welder/cowboy/poacher Josh Brolin stumbles upon a suitcase full of money and a truck full of drugs and gets hunted down by cold assassin Javier Bardem with a special Money Detector; meanwhile, Sheriff Tommy Lee Jones is supposed to be looking for both of them, but he's too much of a sluggish curmudgeon to do much about it. Coincidences and improbable elements continuously pop up (people seem to be able to locate each other very easily) - and intelligence, at times, isn't exactly at a premium - though the Coens know how to dress up their babies, leaving out music, punctuating the silence with gunshots or telephones ringing and having the best cinematography (by Roger Deakins) money can buy (in other words, they're stylistically flawless). The 'point,' however, is deeply problematic and is promoting a kind of xenophobia, and the suggestion that America is letting its criminals run free is simply insulting: Bardem the Angel of Death is allowed to shuffle around (one of Jones' friends compares him to a "ghost"), ignored as he shoots up hotels and strangers, women and passers-by (and isn't it troubling that the Bardem figure is the most interesting/memorable figure in the movie?). Plus, if they are suggesting (like I think they are) that America is Dying, then they - and maybe Cormac McCarthy - need to realize it's because of those fuckup old men. This is the country they made and continue to make. Everyone else is simply trying to keep their boots clean.
