No Country for Old Men

I know I know, this post is both a day late (movies are scheduled for Friday) and several months late (the movie is already available for rental); but here it is nonetheless. Jenna and I have only seen two movies in the theater since we've lived in Pennsylvania--one great (Le Scaphandre et le papillon), one awful (The Other Boleyn Girl)--so we didn't see No Country for Old Men in the theater. I really had intended to read the novel before seeing the movie; but academic reading overwhelmed me even before I could finish Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. No Country, along with The Border Trilogy are on my summer/free time reading list. Anyway, on the film.

I approached the film very much wanting to enjoy it, and I was not disappointed. I would expect to be impressed with the combination of McCarthy and the Coen brothers and they certainly didn't let me down. Javier Bardem (who looks ridiculously like Jeffrey Dean Morgan aka Denny Duquette) certainly deserved his award for Best Supporting Actor, Tommy Lee Jones was better than I ever expected him to be, and the actors, all together, were excellent.

The cinematography and directing (as expected) were excellent. Having not read the novel, I cannot attest to the validity of the adaptation award, but the flow of the plot-line ran very well and seems in line with the style that McCarthy imposes upon his novels (in my opinion, gleaned from reading half of one novel).

Over all, I had very high expectations for the novel and I wasn't disappointed.