My best friend & I went to see No Country for Old Men on Saturday and let me tell y'all, I am still shivering from the experience. Not because the theater was cold (remember, I lived in the Arctic last week), but from witnessing the truly chilling performance by Javier Bardem. And it wasn't just his hideous haircut:
I keep trying to figure out the potential symbolism behind that hair. The Coen brothers are nothing if not all about allegory and symbols (Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou?), but I am coming up with nothing other than that 'do is what makes the character homicidal.
Regardless, every scene with Anton Chigurh is one in which my heart stops beating for a few seconds while I hold my breath. The exchange between him and a gas station attendant is possibly the most uncomfortable, terrifying scene that doesn't involve a physically violent act.
I've seen Javier in other sexy & delicious intellectually satisfying roles and have found him admirable. But this. If I were an Academy voter, I would feel my life perhaps in danger if I failed to give him the Oscar.
Ahhh. Mucho mejor.
