No Country for Old Men

Whenever I hear about Hollywood executives forcing a movie to re-shoot its ending, I roll my eyes. Can’t they just let the filmmakers’ vision unfold and not worry about whether a focus group thinks an ending is sufficiently upbeat? But then I saw “No Country for Old Men” (2007), which could have been re-titled “No Payoff For Patient Moviegoers.” I mean, you spend two hours immersed in mesmerizing acting and brilliant dialogue as drug money leaves a bloody trail across West Texas. And then Tommy Lee Jones tells a story about a dream he had. The end. Seriously? Seriously? WTF?

 

True Grit (2010)

I saw the original “True Grit” when I was a child, many years ago. I do not judge the 2010 version against the 1969 John Wayne version. Each stands well on its own. The newcomer is simply a fine cowboy movie. Colorful characters. Not too long. Doesn’t try to be profound. Two extra things make it great. Hailee Steinfeld plays a confident-beyond-her-years 14-year-old girl that carries the movie by sheer force of will. And the script takes the language of the 1800s and turns it into poetry. It is an exercise in meticulous sentence structuring that brought me great pleasure.