For as head-scratchingly complex as No Country for Old Men is – it’s a classic Coen brothers film, for sure – it’s also remarkably simple, much like the western Texas landscape that in which it resides. Utilizing a straightforward narrative triangle based on its three focal characters and basing the action on the primal drive of a chase movie, the film forms a foundation so strong that it affords the Coens the opportunity to add their trademark flourishes. Add in a trio of top-level performances and you have a landmark in a pair of writing and directing résumés with few blemishes in the first place.

The film begins with Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a small-town sheriff used to simpler times, lamenting the violent direction the world has taken. He takes issue with the fact that well-meaning folk can’t work out their differences without the use of firearms. His worries are especially relevant to Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a local hunter who comes upon a drug deal turned bad, complete with dead bodies, a truck bed full of heroin, and a suitcase with a couple million dollars. Wanting to improve life for his wife (Kelly Macdonald), whom he adores, Moss takes the money but returns to the crime scene to help a dying man. Here, he encounters Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a human Terminator with a Prince Valiant haircut who chases Moss through Texas and Mexico to recover the drug money.

Though the thrill of the chase is the force that keeps the audience mesmerized – Chigurh’s execution of nearly anyone who gets in his way is gripping – the payoff is the study of the characters. Chigurh has an odd morality to the way he works; his killing is seemingly thoughtless, but he is soft spoken and chooses his words wisely, and he occasionally gives his victims a 50/50 chance of living based on the call of a coin flip. Moss, meanwhile, is far from a good ol’ boy, but his motives are right, and his training as a Vietnam veteran gives him more than one thrilling escape from Chigurh’s awaiting clutches.

The balance to these men is Bell, whom Jones plays with a steady hand one can only get from decades of acting. Even while going through a major wake-up call that perhaps the ethics and methods of yesteryear have no chance of surviving in the 1980s landscape that he inhabits, Jones remains a pillar of strength.

The bulk of the credit goes, of course, to the Coens, who sketch Cormac McCarthy’s novel with a very specific eye. The movie is sparse but complex and, while it’s confusing as hell, it’s a ride that you can’t take your eyes off of.

Rating: * * * * of 5

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