Flip a coin for 'No Country For Old Men'
MOVIE REVIEW
by TERRI MEDINA East Aurora Editor
If ever there was a movie Tommy Lee Jones should narrate and star in, it's "No Country For Old Men."

Josh Brolin is Llewelyn Moss in the Coen Brothers' latest film, "No Country For Old Men," based on the book by Cormac McCarthy.

Jones' southern drawl helps set the story for a sad recollection of easier times in West Texas and his longing for a simpler time.

The movie is the latest from Joel and Ethan Coen - the Coen Brothers - a moviemaking team known for their eccentric and often violent dramas.

This movie is no exception.

What begins with a man hunting antelope in the desert ends with multiple slayings by hit man Anton Chigurh ( Javier Bardem), with a homemade cattle gun and a bad haircut, who bases his killings on those who have crossed him or those who are lucky enough to win a coin toss.

Llewelyn Moss ( Josh Brolin) is a down-on-his-luck, trailer-residing hunter who stumbles across a circle of dead bodies while along the Rio Grande.

When he finds a nearly dead Mexican in a shot-up pickup asking for "agua," as well as a briefcase containing $2 million, we discover Moss' softer side, because instead of taking the money and making for the border, he returns in the middle of the night with a canteen full of water. But he's being watched, and the next thing he knows, Chigurh, who is never outdone, is hot on his trail. Because of a tracking device in the briefcase, Moss can only stay one step ahead of the madman.

While Moss is on the run, Chigurh is willing to play the hunting game, but he is going to use Moss' wife, Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald), as bait.

Chigurh tells Moss he will spare Carla Jean's life but that Moss is already done for, based on an abstract set of principles that Chigurh lives by.

Moss thinks he can beat Chigurh and leads him on a chase through border towns while trading gunfire from time to time.

What is defining about the movie is that although Jones' part is minor, other than the narration, it's his memories and longing for the simpler law of the land that makes us wonder if time has really changed the ways of the south.

As long as there have been guns and money and a long river to cross, there has been crime.

I guess that's the point in the end; no one wins, not the good, the bad or the indifferent, not even the young or old.

The Coen Brothers, as we have seen in such movies as "Fargo" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" are less concerned about the case being solved as they are with the fact that time marches on as we all try and outrun extinction.

This movie is rated R. The graphic nature might deter some from seeing this film, while diehard Coen Brothers fans will appreciate the deeper meaning.

e-mail: tmedina@beenews.com