Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in a scene from 'No Country for Old Men'. - Contributed

(AP):

Cormac McCarthy and the Coen brothers - if you stop to think about it, it's a wonder they've never teamed up before.

The revered writer and the acclaimed moviemakers share so much in common: a love of language, a drive to develop rich characters, an appreciation for the importance of a vivid sense of place and an innate ability to tell stories that take you in directions you'd never have expected from the outset. No Country for Old Men marries their strengths in ways that are deceptively simple and profoundly moving, set against the harshly beautiful, seemingly endless landscape of West Texas.

In adapting McCarthy's 2005 novel about crime and carnage along the Rio Grande, the writing-directing Coens, Joel and Ethan, stay mostly faithful to its structure while maintaining much of its rhythmically clipped, colourful dialogue.

If you've read the book, you'll be pleased with the choices they've made; if you have not, wait until after you've seen the film to do so. Allow yourself to be engrossed by its unpredictability.

Set in 1980, the tale follows three vastly different men tied together by a big-money drug deal gone bad. Josh Brolin is perfectly cast as the stoic Vietnam vet who stumbles upon the bloody aftermath, finds a briefcase stuffed with US$2 million and impulsively makes off with it. Javier Bardem is chilling as the mysterious, murderous psychopath chasing after him to get the cash back. And Tommy Lee Jones is right in his element as the sheriff tracking them both and lamenting the loss of his honourable way of life in an increasingly senseless world.