Films/DVD Asylum

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mkuller

In Reply to: RE: I can't recommend it as strongly, but it is a powerful film. posted by Audiophilander on November 21, 2007 at 11:25:35

...about the ending.

But while I like to see everything neatly tied up and the bad guy get his just dessert, a more nebulous ending like this one tends to resonate more and give you something to think about.

Given Tommy Lee's conversation with the guy in the wheelchair and where he ends up at the film's conclusion, I thought it was fitting.

Follow Ups:

Plus, it's telling the story of the book. (warning, spoilers) - sjb 11:45:42 11/21/07 (1)
I too felt this was very, very well done on all fronts, perhaps most of all in atmosphere, but it was ultimately, for me, less than fully satisying. It wasn't because of the ending (which I liked and thought had real power) but because of a kind of distance from it all... a lack of full emotional resonance if you will.

One thing that pulled me out of the film a little was the anticlimax of Luellens (sp?) demise. After being with him for basically all of the cat and mouse with Bardem it was strange to be so far from him when they had their final showdown. Suddenly the movie was all about Tommy Lee Jones.

It was an interesting and kind of bold choice but for me at least it had a slightly negative impact.

And it was a little strange when TLJ went back to the motel room and we saw the shot of Bardem hiding with his gun just before Jones enetered the room and then, nothing. It didn't seem like he was actually in there and if that was a big moment of Bardem deciding not to kill Jones and/or it was Jones imagining him being in there (and Bardem's ghostlike presence was the reason Jones went to the wheelchair guy with the feeling of being haunted and hunted) then it was underplayed to the point of losing some of the power/impact it might have had.

These things too might be true to the book but they helped leave a void in my overall impression of the film.

All that said, I'll probably see it again. Oh, and what a great performance by Luellen's wife.

"You can safely assume you have created God in your own image when he hates all the same people you do."
- The ending was way "literary", like McCarthy; all the foregoing had been filmic. - clarkjohnsen 06:39:46 11/22/07 (0)
  The two did not jibe well. Perhaps Bergman could have pulled it off?
  
  Otherwise I and my companions were tightly gripped.
  
  The evil in Chigurh, and the path it follows, far outstrips that of any orc or Grendel in any FX extravaganza; the more human its incarnation, the scarier evil be. Take that as a rule, directors!
  
  Here's a passage from the L.A. Times I stumbled across:
  
  An intense, nihilistic thriller as well as a model of implacable storytelling, this is a film you can't stop watching even though you might very much wish you could. That's because "No Country" escorts you through a world so pitilessly bleak, "you put your soul at hazard," as one character says, to be part of it.
  
  Sez it for me.
  
  clark

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