vespatian75

Like Tarantino but better than anything he did since Pulp Fiction, from which it borrowed the punk teenage couple. It tells a simple story with building pressure. Not completely happy with the resolution, but it is riveting. Cast was excellent especially the waitress, the knife salesman, and the head robber. But everyone fit their part The director told the story in a simple unpretentious manner. He avoided the pomposity of many recent thrillers. Looking back there were a few questionable plot devices but none of these spoiled the driving thrust of the movie. I put it on by accident while I was intending to get a drink, but I stayed put transfixed and unwilling to miss a single detail.

I.admire Cormack McCarthy's work. I thought his novel "Blood Meridian" was a masterpiece. I like the Coen Brothers also. I read the novel before I saw the movie. I liked 90% of the way through and then didn't. I felt the same way about the film.

The film's direction admirably reflects McCarthy's prose description of the Southwest. The script is taut, the plot moves, the acting is excellent.

So what went wrong? In my opinion the ending was a copout. McCarthy has become obsessed with the power of evil. He overstates the the Bardem character, The Coens follow him down the line. The only time they change the original plot is to make Bardem's character even more omnipotent. A staged unhappy ending can be just as hokey as the typical cliched old time syrupy one. In this case the original author, and directors simply avoided an actual confrontation that one way or another would have lent some moral clarity to the story.