The Coen Brothers (Fargo, Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, etc.) take hold of Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country For Old Men like a rattlesnake onto the throat of a dying man.

McCarthy's 2003 novel tells the tale of a south Texas drug deal gone wrong. Vietnam vet Llewelyn Moss (played with cowboy aplomb by Josh Brolin) finds the scene of  the bloody shootout while hunting. Thinking to better his humble life he makes off with $2.4 million in drug money, unaware that a radio transponder within the case is keeping his trail warm for the psychopathic hit man Chigurh.

Hired to retrieve both product and cash for a shadowy businessman, Chigurh is a soulless, relentless killer who uses an air pressure powered stun gun to a variety of gruesome ends. Played with dead-eyed verve by Javier Bardem, his character stands in stark contrast to that of Sheriff Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones. A third generation lawman, he is pushed to his limits by the all out range war sparked by the initial kill and Chigurh's subsequent murderous rampage.

The starkly beautiful Texan landscape lends itself so perfectly to the stoic prose scripted straight out of McCarthy's book and the film delivers thrills aplenty in what must be the closest the Coen's have yet come to making a an action-packed chase movie. Blood and bullets mingle with tense anticipation throughout. Anyone in doubt of the Coen's stock after their more recent, lighter fare should be delighted to see them again plumbing the dark depths once again. And as for McCarthy, No Country makes me wonder just how amazing an adaptation of The Road would be.

The film has it's North American Premiere right here in Toronto at TIFF. No Country For Old Men opens in theatres across North America on November 9th.