Definitely not for Old Men and not for me too....

Maybe it's a great movie, well it is a great movie, of course it is, who am I kidding, i don't remember the last movie that gutted me so badly. Yes it is a great movie. But in a highly (and i mean highly in comparison to the empire state building) depressing way. I don't know what the Coens are playing at. If they are going to make such a fantastic movie they might choose a slightly less gut wrenching subject. No country for old men is dark in a way that would put Cradle of Filth to shame. There is a character here, Anton Chigurh played by Xavier Bardem who makes Dr Hannibal Lector seem like a gentleman who plays golf and spends weekends with his wife and 2 kids. I mean as scary as Lector was he was still someone different from all of us and not a common man. Anton is common. Well that's what Bardem makes you believe and that's why what he does is so much more chilling. Now we have seen evil men on screen who laugh out loud or exclaim their greatness after commiting a gruesome crime. Anton simply looks on and you would think he feels nothing at that point until on a closer look you can see quiet distinctly the thrill in his eyes. Initially I thought he was playing the cool guy. I thought when he said what he said was actually said coz he wanted to be funny. Then in the gas station when he tosses the coin in front of the owner and asks him to call it I realized with slowly spreading dread that this man would kill just for kicks.This man enjoys every moment of murder. And he has a very innovative way of murdering people. I won't even go into that for it's plain cold and hideous and crude. Of course later on in the movie he uses a gun which gives some semblance of culture to his murderous existence. After that everytime he looked at someone and his gaze lingered for more than a few seconds on that person, a chill ran through every atom in me. I was actually praying in my head, please not another one. And it must be something about Xavier Bardem's performance that he makes even a watcher of the movie, sitting on the sidelines, sit up straighter and in some cases recoil just by smiling slowly. Who is this guy and were was this powerhouse of a performer? Well he is after some money and that money is with Llewlyn played by Josh Brolin who thinks he can out run his hunter. Also we have a sheriff in the form of Tommy Lee Jones who is about to retire and can't understand what is happening around him. He is lucky I would say for he doesn't yet know Anton. The movie opens with the lines, " I once caught a man who had killed a girl. The police called it an act of passion but the man told me that he simply wanted to kill someone and he had wanted to do so for some time". There are sequences that stand out vividly in memory. The gas station coin tossing, the cark park shootout, the hotel cat and mouse chase, oh all of them plain cold murderous. I don't know if this movie had an emotional core at all. Atleast Anton doesn't want you to believe so. But on second thoughts yes there was. Tommy Lee Jones brings it along as he speaks. He has resigned to the events and circumstances. They are beyong his control. He is too old now to control them. As one of his friend's tells him. You can't stop what's coming, and it won't wait for you. Expecting it to wait is just vanity. Again sadness, maybe I was wrong in looking for happiness in this movie. Maybe it was intended to be devastating. I don't know, i just hope i don't live to watch another movie of such "greatness".

I Atone Myself

One of the biggest problems in a movie adapted from a book is this: A book can explain what the character is going through, what he is thinking, how he or she feels about another character, back story and so on and so on. A movie can't do that if a director is only interested in showing how visually creative he is and if an actor thinks that just by saying the dialogues in the movie he will get an oscar. Now English Patient is a movie that comes to mind. Considering that it is my all time favorite novel, i still thought the movie captured the mood of the book well though it did play around with the prominence of the characters. It was still a good movie and of course the fact that i love both the ladies and have the highest respect for the lead actor helped in my perception of the movie. The problem most directors and well a flaw that most of them have is they do not understand that visuals are for hightening a mood and not the mood itself. It is the characters that stay with you after the movie and not the scenes. Blending them to elevate the final effect is what they set out to do and end up falling in love with their camera and the set decoration. Akiro Kurosawa understood this better than anyone else and did this with great success.Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the other hand does it with great failure. I hate it when Guillermo Del Toro is called a visual stylist. No visual stylist could achive what he did with Pan's Labyrinth. Same goes for Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain comes to mind. And then recently I watched Atonement and this is going to be my third example from now on. Before I begin sample this, I got a DVD from the roadside, it was camera print, bad audio quality no subtiltles and hence I couldn't understand what they were saying in french(some parts are in french). And yet I loved it. This could have been a silent movie and i would still love it. The camera doesn't move, it meanders. There is so much time for us to know what the characters are thinking that we do not need dialogue. I mean any person with an ability to feel a semblance of emotion would know that Robbie and Cecilia are in love and Briony also has a crush on Robbie. And then there are scenes seen from different point of views. And this we understand because so many times we have seen things that seem one way but are actually the complete opposite. I guess after the movie i'm supposed to feel sorry for Robbie and Cecilia but I feel more sorry for Briony. The poor thing. How is she supposed to know to control her emotions at 13. She doesn't know how to handle them. And I don't think she's to blame either. James McAvoy is a fine actor. Ryan Gosling has some company at the top for the best actors of the next generation. I need to watch more movies of his. Keira Knightly is a goddess. If I wasn't already in love with her I would after seeing her as Cecilia. She is wonderful in a way that only brits can be. Kristin Scott Thomas, Kate Winslet... they can talk, laugh, cry or be bitches and have you in love with them. Even the character of Briony was played by an exceptionally gifted girl. Just look at her see through the window at Robbie and Cecilia and see the emotions pass on her face. It's one thing to talk and another to be silent. I'm sure silence is harder for most. Joe Wright-the director, masterful. His second big movie and i've loved both, the second one more than the first. If people think Pride and Prejudice is easy to make, think again. Anyone who has heard of English Literature knows the story. So if you can make a movie and still excite people with the great romance of Mr Darcy and Miss Bennet, then it must be special. Same goes for Atonement. It's a dreamy movie and it's so easy to get lost in the beautiful British Landscapes, but no. Instead he gives us a scene to beat all scenes. It's a long shot and i mean this in terms of duration. It's a shot of the Allied Army at Dunkirk. For a moment I thought someone forgot to switch off the camera and then after sometime started thanking that unknown person and then as my mind came out of the reverie i realized, that's exactly what he wanted to do. An absolute nonchalant shot which so wonderfully shows the chaos of war and the people fighting. It's as if someone dropped you right in the middle of an army settlement and you are looking all around you and taking it all in. Magnifique!! Truly amazing cinema. The ending is again so great and haunting, it just illustrates the power of a book. Briony's book, her Atonement.....