"No Country for Old Men" is a film about strength. Determination and death, told in an intelligent and poignant manner.

Lewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is hunting. In his attempt to kill an animal, he comes across a death scene where a drug deal has gone bad. He finds a bag of money and it changes his life. Ironically, he attempts to commit one act of kindness and it dooms him.

Javier Bardem, being seen for the first time by many American filmgoers, plays the man who must get the money back. He is death personified and he has no qualms about killing anyone. Oddly, he has a strong sense of ethics.

Tommy Lee Jones plays an older sheriff who wants to protect Brolin from Bardem. He is smart and possesses a great deal of wisdom, but feels the world; his world is passing him by.

What makes the film work is that Brolin is not merely a bull headed wild man. He is intelligent and stubborn, but he is not Rambo. Jones is not a super cop. The film does not end with one character's death. It doesn't make murder and death that neat. It tells a riveting story without resorting to cheap plot twists or over the top special effects. The film is visually stark as is the story.

What people don't get is that the movie ended with Tommy Lee Jones dialogue with the old man. How the story actually ends is not important at that point as the message of the film about good vs. bad is.

The ending is ambiguous on purpose. The story lets you decide your own ending, though you get plenty of clues along the way to make out what could have happened. As I saw it, Brolin was in deep trouble as he had both Javier Bardem (Anton Chigurh) and the Mexican hoodlums behind his back after the money. Both parties targeted Brolin's wife and mother. Both die, as do the Mexican hoods on the hands of Bardem, who gets his share on a car accident.

What happens to Brolin and the money is open to debate. He was at the motel being courted by a lady at the pool, so my feeling is that he died at the motel scene together with the Mexican hoodlums on the hands of Bardem who happened to have gone back in search for the money at the exact same time that Tommy Lee Jones was visiting the crime scene. Though no confrontation occurred between the last two, it is likely that Bardem pocketed part of the money, which explained why he carried $100 dollar bills at the time of the car accident in which he gives a 100 dollar bill to a kid for his t shirt.

"No Country for Old Men" is the best film I've seen this year. I highly recommend it. Not all movies have to be crystal clear with happy endings for you to like them.