The ending to their latest release, No Country For Old Men, is definitely a do-it-yourself job.

     I don't know when this ridiculous, insipid, lazy, evil practice of not putting actual endings on movies started. The Sopranos did it, Eastern Promises and a host of other recent films have done it. Yet in all the critical lambastes upon such cinematic discharges, none of the directors whose projects are destined to be released after such failures consider that maybe audiences don't like being suckered in and teased with a good film for two hours or more, only to metaphor-ically be told at the end, "Sorry honey...that's never happened to me before. I'll do better next time."

     And much like a naive virgin bride who sadly discovers that her new husband isn't ready, willing or particularly able to perform on their wedding night, so too does No Country sucker you in with its promises of a satisfying story, only to jump out of bed in the last half hour and declare with false sincerity, "Wow, look at the time! I gotta get up in a couple hours for work. Gotta go!"

     The story starts off near the U.S.-Mexico border, where Llewelyn Moss(Josh Brolin) is out hunting, when he discovers a group of dead men sprawled amidst their trucks. A quick search of the vehicles turns up several kilos of dope, along with just over two million dollars in cash...the results of a drug transfer gone wrong. Llewelyn decides to keep the money, and of course that's when things rapidly go south. Mexican drug dealers are searching for the money--and him--but more terrifying is the fact that a sociopathic madman has also been dispatched to find the cash. Javier Bardem(Love in the Time of Cholera) plays killer Anton Chigurh with a great deal of relish. He's the type of character that would give Michael Myers nightmares. However Josh Brolin(American Gangster) is also no slouch either as Llewelyn. As a matter of fact, when Anton threatens to kill Llewelyn's wife as punishment if the money is not brought to him and Llewelyn in turn tells Anton "I'll bring you something alright...I'm going to make you my special project", you just know it's going to be the ultimate showdown between two men who've had to do quite a lot of killing in their lives(Llewelyn was a 'Nam vet), and one more won't make a difference.

     The problem is, there is no ultimate blowup. There are no easy resolutions, or in the case of the movie's ending(don't worry, I won't reveal it here), there are almost none to be found. While I can appreciate a film which has an ambiguous ending to it, the fact is that the whole setup depends on the director/writer(in this case the Coen brothers, adapting from Cormac McCarthy's novel, perform double duty here) having the skills to pull off such a feat and not make the viewer regret sitting through all that has come before. Unfortunately, the Coen's are not up to the task.

     Up until the last twenty minutes, No Country For Old Men(the film clocks in at 2:02) is one hell of a brilliant movie...and it came damn close to making me have to print a retraction to my review proclaim-ing Gone Baby Gone as the best film of the year. Tommy Lee Jones(In The Valley Of Elah) is fantastic as Ed Tom Bell, a sheriff who feels overwhelmed by the newer displays of evil he's beginning to see all around him every day. Kelly Macdonald gives an assured, graceful performance as Carla Jean Moss, Llewelyn's wife. Even Woody Harrelson(A Scanner Darkly), whom I've always considered extremely overrated, commands the screen as Carson Wells, a man hired to hunt down Anton, even as the killer hunts for Llewelyn. The main problem with the movie is, as stated above, the ending...one which almost manages to eradicate all good graces the film had garnered until then. There are certain movies which, no matter if you know the ending already, you're still willing to see again and again, knowing that somehow you'll get the same thrill as the first time you saw it. Sadly, until the last twenty minutes of this movie, I was thoroughly ready to sit through it all over again. Unfortunately, those last twenty minutes do exist now, and so I can never sit through No Country ever again.

     I now officially hate the last twenty minutes of this movie.

     In spite of my rancor, I am still going to recommend No Country For Old Men. The reason being is that perhaps you can find some way to absolve the filmmakers for what they have done, and perhaps you can actually tolerate it. As for me, it's just a shame that a movie which started out so brilliantly and kept that level of energy and creativity flowing for so long could take a beating so completely in its last third. Perhaps when the DVD comes out, missing scenes will be restored and at least some of the major unresolved issues will be present on the disc.

     Maybe.