These boots are made for stalkin': "No Country for Old Men"

I've never read a Cormac McCarthy book, and after seeing "No Country for Old Men," I'm not sure I ever will.

Listen, I know the Coen Brothers can be uneven with their movies. For every "Fargo," there's a "Man Who Wasn't There." For every "Raising Arizona," there's a "Hudsucker Proxy." But I'm chalking the sudden left turn about three-fourths of the way through their latest movie up to ol' Cormac, since it sounds like Joel and Ethan for the most part went for a faithful adaptation. In any case, this turn of events doesn't ruin the movie by any stretch, but it definitely downgrades it from potential masterpiece to merely good.

Our story centers around a simple West Texas man who, while out hunting, comes across a drug deal gone bad -- that explains all the dead bodies -- and $2 million in cash. He decides to keep it, but as he rightly guesses, some folks don't want to dismiss that money as missing.

Sure enough, a fella who totes around a rather unique tool -- check out the first plot keyword here -- and who we learn in the first few minutes isn't a nice man starts tracking our sort-of protagonist, while the local sheriff tries to make sense of all the bloodshed. This sets off some cool cat-and-mouse action, as well as delicious scenes with close-to-perfect dialogue and great atmosphere. This may be miles away from Minnesota, but the Coens capture the mood quite well, with plenty of help from their cast.

Tommy Lee Jones plays the grizzled sheriff, and thankfully he trades some of that tough-guy "Fugitive" schtick for something more contemplative and colorful here. In other words, he has some funny lines. The hunter who makes off with the money is Josh Brolin, who probably gives the best performance of his life. I was all ready to say he's not that bad an actor, but then I looked at his IMDB page and wasn't blown away. Sure, he was good in "Flirting With Disaster," but nothing else really jumped out at me. (No, not even "The Goonies.") All the more reason to be impressed with his work here.

Neither of these guys, however, can hold a candle to the psycho hitman, played by a truly impressive Javier Bardem. People, this cat can capital-A act. Before "Old Men," I had seen him in "The Sea Inside" -- he was the lead -- and "Collateral," where he had little more than a bit part. Both were solid turns, and let's not forget his Oscar nomination for "Before Night Falls."

Here, he's perfectly subdued as a killer -- not so much matter-of-fact as knowing who he is and going with it. Not even running with it or reveling in it, just going with it. He's single-minded, to be sure, but also philosophical, yet not in an annoying way. The nitpickers among us could complain about him pontificating and playing with victims one time too many, but I thoroughly enjoyed his character, and not just because of that air tank.

So this sounds like a pretty good movie, right? Well, it is for about 90 minutes. Great story, intriguing characters, quirkiness, tension, etc. etc. Then it gets too cute for some damn reason just as things build to a climax.

I'm pretty sure I didn't say "What the hell?" out loud in the theater, but I can't be sure. There's no way to explain this without ruining the movie, but suffice it to say that the craft and elegance that went into the storytelling to that point inexplicably is dumped in favor of something more disjointed and vague. Hey, I don't need to see every plot point unfold on the screen, but a little bit of clarity and closure wouldn't kill you, Cormac. And if it did, well, I can live with that.