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No Country For Old Men - Preview and Cannes reaction

Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men

Preview by Jack Foley

NO Country For Old Men, the new film from the Coen Brothers, emerged as one of the highlights of the 60th Cannes Film Festival and a surefire return to form for the acclaimed filmmakers.

The film follows the fortunes of Llewelyn Morris (Josh Brolin) after he finds a pick-up truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men, a load of heroin and $2 million in cash. Taking the money, Morris inadvertently sets off a chain of violence that not even the resident lawman (played by Tommy Lee Jones) can contain.

As Moss desperately tries to evade his pursuers – including a mastermind who flips coins for human lives – the film juggles issues of contemporary America with some Biblical themes.

Aside from Brolin and Jones, the film is notable for featuring another standout performance from Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who has particularly set tongues wagging among critics.

The BBC’s Stephen Robb, for example, credits the Oscar-nominated star with giving “one of the most memorably chilling film performances in years”.

The film is an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s acclaimed and brutal modern-day Western and marks a return to the edgier, darker and altogether more violent territory that first helped the Coens to garner such acclaim with films like Blood Simple, Fargo and Miller’s Crossing.

Of late, they’ve turned their hand to comedy with less favourable results – both with George Clooney effort Intolerable Cruelty and Tom Hanks remake The Ladykillers.

But early word on No Country For Old Men suggests that it could well be in line for several awards as it progresses throughout the year.

And Bardem, especially, has been receiving some superlative comments, most notably from the directors themselves. Referring to the actor’s ability to combine moments of chilling intensity with dry humour, Joel told a press conference: “I don’t think that’s anything that you can script. That’s just something that makes him a great actor – those sort of unexpected, and unscripted, unplanned details.”

Reaction to the film’s first press screening was also positive with Screen International‘s jury of critics each giving it three or four marks out of four. However, their overall verdict was that it fell a little short of the greatness that sometimes seemed in its grasp.