No Movie For Stupid Men

When I get sick, like I am now, that usually means it's time to crack out the 'ol DVDs. And nothing beats the cold like snuggling up on a couch and watching dudes get their brains air-hammered out by a gentleman with a Dutch-boy haircut.

(potential spoilers)
Despite the gratuitious violence in No Country, that I am alarmingly numb to, the movie is actually one of the most cerebral films I have seen recently. Actually, I haven't felt like more of a dumb-ass since watching The Sixth Sense, when I left the theatre still wondering why he had blood on his shirt at the end. That's right, I didn't get it, laugh it up.

But in No Country, I had that same blank stare on my face when the screen cut to black and the credits started rolling. Did I miss something? It was at this point where I nodded in approval, covering up my utter confusion, and casually glanced around to see if anyone else in a stupefied state. Yess! There was a guy in the row in front of me, straw absently still touching his mouth from the last sip he took, staring dumfoundedly ahead. He looked over at his wife, but she just shrugged at him and grabbed her jacket. Ok, so I'm not the only one.

So what was this movie about? Was it about an insane man who is deep down a man of principle and intelligence, but only in his own f-ed up way? Was it about a sheriff struggling with the reality of violence in his old age? Was it about how he could not find God? Was it about the unstoppable power of evil and insanity? All of them? I don't know!

So I sit here, mulling it over, trying to find unifying themes and plotlines, like I used to do in high school English, waiting for it to hit me. Maybe I've just been hit too many times across the face by the Farreley Brothers movies.