No Smoke without Fire

The aging Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), the last of three generations of sheriffs, surveys the scene of the crime: multiple bodies are strewn across a small patch of desert near to his border town of Texas. The level of violence perturbs him – this indeed is No country for Old Men. What he doesn't know is that welder Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) had stumbled across the carnage – a drug deal gone wrong – only the day before and made off with $2 million in cash. Moss makes away with the bounty, knowing that someone will come looking for it; no one banks on that someone being the ruthless assassin Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), however.

The Coen Brothers drag themselves out of their Ladykillers/Intolerable Cruelty slump with No Country For Old Men, a contemporary western based on Cormac McCarthy's novel, and sees the brothers return to familiar territory: the crime thriller. One of their most mature films to date, the Coens delight in self experimentation despite the comfort zone. Gone are the zany characters and the quippy one-liners swapped instead for a downbeat, bleak and trimmed back plot, while introducing one of the most memorable and spooky movie characters since Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth in the process. Javier Bardem's bounty hunter is one of nightmares and the Spanish actor rises to the occasion, delivering a sultry performance. He's not alone, as Brolin moves confidently into leading man territory while Jones generously calls shotgun. Kelly McDonald and Woody Harrelson, although limited to smaller roles, make each their own.

Susanne Bier should have made Things We Lost In The Fire her own. In her first Hollywood foray, the Danish director (Brode, After The Wedding) has lost the edge that got her noticed with this nothing story. After the death of her husband Brian (David Duchovny), Audrey Burke (Halle Berry) turns to the one person she hates, Brian's best friend and heroin addict, Jerry (Benicio Del Toro). Jerry moves in with Audrey and feelings grow between the two – feelings neither want to admit.

Things We Lost In The Fire is an emotionally shallow script written by a tourist. Writer Allan Loeb might have lived through a bereavement, has been addicted to heroin or knew someone who was, but his script doesn't have the depth it needs to engage an audience. Sure, it ticks a lot of boxes but it's all surfaces, all research and no feeling or insight.
GAVIN BURKE