No Country for Old Men

The Coen Brothers' new movie, No Country for Old Men, is a rousing thrill-ride for much of its running time, but with an ending that, well... just simply sucks.

As I understand it, the film follows the novel quite closely, and the ending is the same as in the book. Well, this would have been a great chance to do some re-writing, because the ending comes out of nowhere, and not in a good way. People praise the ending of No Country as clever, as it is not only unexpected, but stylistically different from the rest of the film/novel. I simply see it as someone not knowing how to end their story. Without giving too much away, I will say that the last 10 minutes go in a completely different direction from the rest of the film, characters disappear, the momentum that has been growing throughout the film suddenly drops into nothingness, and we have been cheated as an audience.

You really have to see the film to understand what I'm saying here - and I don't want to give away any spoilers - but the story has some serious narrative problems, the ending chief among them. The film itself is great - one of the Coens' best - but that ending... it's just a sore spot with me. You can surprise your audience - even anger and upset them - but it has to come from somewhere meaningful, and it has to (for lack of a better word) jive with the rest of the film. If something feels like it doesn't belong in a film, chances are it shouldn't be there. I understand the attempt to do something different, but sometimes it's better to give what's expected than to fail your audience.