DECEMBER 8, 2007 --

No Country for Old Men

Cormac McCarthy's novel applied -- not really adapted -- to the screen.  LPR still doesn't know why the bad guy (Javier Bardem) was  in the area in the first place.  Movie omits explanation in the novel as to what had been bothering the Tommy Lee Jones character his entire law enforcement career.  For a tale of the new West, LPR recommends  "Lonely are the Brave" - David Miller, director; Dalton Trumbo screenplay, based on "The Brave Cowboy," the Edward Abbey novel.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Movie runs 117 minutes. For LPR seemed like 217 minutes. Billed in some places as a dark comedy, there is nothing comedic about this unrelievedly harrowing film.  Any laughter heard from the audience is variation of whistling past a graveyard.  Ethan Hawke's pay phone scene filmed on South Broadway in Yonkers, just up the road from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Curious casting of Rosemary Harris and Albert (once Tom Jones) Finney. LPR did not realize Marisa Tomei was in the movie until the credits. Directed by Sidney Lumet, born 1924.