Non, ce pays n'est pas pour le vieil homme

Froid et glacial, calme et silencieux, d'une rudesse froide, ce thriller particulier des frères Coen se présente à la fin comme une grande œuvre d'art que le spectateur dévore volontiers. Les frères Coen reviennent là où je les préfère, après quelques écarts comiques. Dans mon adolescence, Michael Myers me poursuivait dans mes cauchemars, aujourd'hui ce sera le tueur Javier Bardem. Et même le shérif Tommy Lee Jones ne me sauvera pas de lui. (19/02/2008)

De ce film, je ne garde en mémoire que la fameuse prestation de Javier Bardem, dont la terrible coiffure lui donne un air totalement fou. Les films des frères Coen font mouche la moitié du temps en ce qui me concerne – certains me plaisent énormément, d’autres pas du tout. Et ce No Country for Old Men fait partie de la deuxième catégorie. (13/03/2014)

I don't give a damn about journalistic glorification, this film is strong in the details, but unremarkable as a whole. Let's shed a tear at the memory of the brilliant Fargo, the Coens have been getting a bit stale in the last four years. I missed a twist (semi-pathologically spoken moralities don't make a film witty), I missed the Coens' greatest weapon, which has always been a strong story, I missed their typical sense of absurdity and exaggeration, I missed quite a lot here. Bardem's assassin, the character that carries the whole, is neither substantial nor interesting enough that I would already, as overseas publicists are doing with gusto, place this essentially very simple film alongside famous classics. I expect something more from an "unforgettable" film than a banal chase and a one-man-show of one violent mind. Sorry, guys. I attribute the mostly ecstatic enthusiasm for this piece to the well-deserved reputation the talented brothers have earned over their career. (09/01/2008)

No Country for Old Men is not for everyone, in fact, I’d say it’s only for a very narrow section of the public. I’m sure the Coens are very satisfied with it, you can’t deny the film has a distinctive style, but what good is that when I almost fell asleep? The plot moves forward very slowly, and in some places it feels that it doesn’t move at all. The shots of the desert landscape (room, car…) are beautiful, but they could have been shorter and less static. I must praise Javier Barden’s amazing performance, without it the experience would have been barely half as good. (04/08/2008)

The ecstatic cries of American critics, confirmed by the Oscar award, about extreme violence are rather pious pleas of all those who have read McCarthy’s novel and have seen something made by the Coen brothers before. The film is a perfect confirmation that the writers are slowly but surely becoming as arid as the desert on the Texas-Mexico border. This stuff was made for them, but a slave adaptation doesn't make a good movie, and if they didn't have those amazing actors (after American Gangster, Josh Brolin wins again), their adaptation would have absolutely lost its meaning. 70% (rounded down due to expectations). (04/01/2008)