Kat’s Film and Book Reviews

No Country for Old Men

Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen

Rated R

2007

Warning: Possible spoilers. I’m trying to be oblique, but I might be giving some things away.

This review has taken me forever to write. I sat down and watched No Country for Old Men, and a week later, words still eluded me. Then I got the DVD for my birthday, and I’ve seen it a couple times since, but I feel like I’m still sitting stunned, with my mouth hanging open. The Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel, are geniuses with such a sense of a story’s deepest truths that the story weaves its way into the viewer’s thoughts and feelings and doesn’t let go. They always do this; all their movies are so enduring, so rooted in the human condition, that they are unquestionably among those few that will last past their own generation.

The story follows three men. Ed Tom Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones, is the Sheriff of a Texas border county, and while he has a small-town sense of ownership over his territory, he also has the sense to know that his desert county is a major stop in drug trafficking between Mexico and the US. Josh Brolin plays Llewellyn Moss, a good old boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but tries to make it work to his advantage. Finally, Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh, a ruthless, creepy, and unstoppable assassin who is determined to take care of unfinished business—namely, Llewellyn Moss.

Javier Bardem as the unstoppable Anton Chigurh

One thing the Coens have always done well is the casting of their films. True, they do have some stock players (John Goodman and Steve Buscemi come to mind), but every movie is perfectly, exquisitely cast. Jones, Brolin, and Bardem offer the kinds of performances in these roles that don’t even require dialogue or action; the most intense, riveting scenes are the ones in which no one says anything and nothing seems to happen, and yet the tension mounts second by second (at one point, my son, playing computer games in the other room, shouted, “I don’t like this movie, it scares me!” We shouted back, “How can it scare you, nothing is happening!” But it was in fact extremely scary right at that moment). Only the most gifted actors can pull that off, and only the most insightful directors know enough to let them.

Nothing in this movie works out the way the viewer expects it to. It doesn’t matter; we can’t look away. And in the end, we really, really wish it had ended differently, but we also know that this was inevitable. We might wish it was different, but we also recognize that this was how it had to be. It was inevitable.

Josh Brolin as Llewellyn Moss

There are still pieces of this movie I don’t understand. What was with all the animals, especially the black ones? Who won in the end? Where did the Mexicans come from? Why didn’t Carson Wells just turn and shoot Chigurh, or run from him? Why didn’t Bell find Chicurgh, and why didn’t Chigurh kill Bell? What did Bell’s dreams mean?

As Ed Tom Bell might say, probably I don’t understand. I like things to fit together, for all the pieces to fall into place by the end, and this movie stubbornly resists that. That might be deliberate; life just doesn’t tie together that easily. And while fiction isn’t life, it does remind one that even if the loose ends still dangle, there are enough reasons to come back again and again and again. I’ve seen this several times now, and it never gets old, and I never, ever feel like I’ve experienced everything it has to offer.

Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom Bell

I will freely admit that there’s nothing Nora Roberts can’t do.  She started out by writing Silhouette Romances– some straightforward, some series, and some with her trademark magical elements.  She got picked up to do stand-alone single-title books, most of which become immediate best-sellers, and many of which fall into the genre of Romantic Suspense.

In my opinion, Roberts is at her absolute best when she focuses on families and relationships, as in her trilogies (the best of which is the 4-book Chesapeake series, which focuses on one family and includes no magical elements at all).  Many people live for her single-title Romantic Suspense books, such as Blue Smoke, and I myself have read all of them.  But for me, romance will always trump suspense, and that’s my chief criticism of books like Blue Smoke.  The mystery takes center stage, and the romance is tangential.  I prefer it the other way around. 

Blue Smoke follows Catarina Hale, or Reena, from the night when, at age 11, she woke in the middle of the night and discovered that her family’s restaurant was on fire.  From that point on, she develops a fascination with fire, and puts herself on a path to become an arson investigator.  We follow Reena from age 11 to her early 30’s, through relationships and intensive police and fire training, and become aware that someone from her past is also following her.

Reena and her quiet stalker are linked by their fascination with fire and by an experience they shared as children, going back all the way to the arson she reported when she was 11.  Of course, even while people around her are dying one by one, she doesn’t see the pattern until the one man who truly matters comes into her life.  Then the stakes are raised, and so is the danger.

The romance is nice, and love interest Bowen Goodnight is fittingly masculine and sexy (as several scenes with low-slung tool belts will attest).  He is not a sexist and does not resent Reena’s dangerous work, though he does worry about her safety.  She even considers marrying him, providing, of course that she can keep him alive.

Nora Roberts excels at several things that certainly make themselves known in this book.  One is research.  The details in every book, this one included, are part of why they’re hard to put down.  It’s interesting to learn the difference between the fire department and the police department when it comes to arson investigations.  It’s interesting to read about what a woman has to do to fit in and be respected in either place.  In many ways, that’s the primary romance in this novel. 

Another of Roberts’ strengths is her refusal to let her characters become 2-dimensional in any way.  Reena can be tough as nails and fierce, but also love her family, cuddle her nieces and nephews, and be very afraid when the situation calls for it.  Bo can be strong, self-determined and independent, yet have a romantic streak that takes people by surprise.  That’s how real people are.  That’s the ultimate draw of Roberts’ books. 

My personal preference is less suspense, more romance.  But I still read everything Nora Roberts writes.  If you like well-researched, compelling suspense and three dimensional, complex relationships, you’ll find Blue Smoke an extremely satisfying read.