no country for old men

Upon my return from holiday I watched no country for old men on rental. I'd initially planned to watch it before the holiday, but didn't get the time.

I have to say it was pretty good, although it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

It's a Coen brothers film and you can definitely tell it's one of theirs. Although it's not an out-and-out (black) comedy like the others of theirs I've seen it's got a lot of very dark humour in it.

Y'know I'm not entirely sure what to say about the film. I mean it's very good, but it's also pretty complex too.

To me it seemed to be an attempt to subvert just about everything. A big part of the film is essentially a chase - the protagonist, Moss, comes across a drug deal gone wrong out in the desert and steals the money. A psychopath, Chigurh, is then basically sent to recover the money and kill him, so he spends the majority of the film chasing him.

However, in addition, there's a sheriff who's "on their trail" as well. However, even though all of the characters do end up with scenes together, the contact between them is somehow distant and almost implied. By that I mean I don't think they ever actually see each others faces

For example there's a big shoot-out between Chigurh and Moss, but it's all in the dark and often done at a distance so they never see each others faces.

Similarly, a second psychopath is hired to sort out the mess Chigurh is making, but almost as soon as he arrives on the scene he seems to offer Moss a way out, but Chigurh then instantly finds him and kills him.

So do you see what I mean? These things are not how a normal story "should" go. It's subverting the norm.

The biggest subversion comes at the end. I won't spoiler it too much, but lets just say that anything you might expect to happen because of the type of film it is doesn't.

And from that point of view it's a really great film.

The difficulty is it also makes it a very complex film where you really have to think about what happened to get it. Which is always great, but it makes it a film you have to go to with that expectation - it's really not a switch your brain off type of movie.