Crime thriller a triumph for Coen brothers

"No Country for Old Men" -- After two lightweight offerings, the Coen brothers return to form in stunning fashion with "No Country for Old Men," which recently snagged the Oscar for Best Picture. Working off Cormac McCarthy's novel, Joel and Ethan Coen mix elements of the horror, Western and crime genres into a glorious stew that's as mesmerizing as it is difficult to categorize.

Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a good-hearted welder who lives with his wife in a trailer park, discovers the bloody aftermath of a drug deal gone bad deep in the West Texas desert. He steps over dead and wounded men, but can't resist the urge to take a suitcase filled with $2 million. That decision puts him squarely in the sights of Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a professional killer working, it seems, for one of the sides in the drug deal. With the cold resolve of a man-eating shark, Chigurh pursues Moss all over Texas, hoping to recover the money and kill the man who took it from him. Also looking for Moss is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a grizzled lawman trying to keep the rising tide of drug-related violence in his county from pushing him into despair.

Most thrillers would have these characters meet at the end, Sergio Leone style, in a dramatic three-way explosion of bullets and blood. But the Coens, following McCarthy's lead, take the characters down a different, and much more interesting, road. "No Country" morphs from a crackling good Western-noir into a somber meditation on violence, complete with an amazingly moving final scene. The movie contains some of the Coens' most elegant and restrained filmmaking, and it boasts knockout performances from all three lead actors. Bardem, who will send shivers up your spine as the brutal Chigurh, won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and deservedly so. But for my money, the best performance belongs to Jones. Yes, he's played world-weary Texas lawmen before, but never with such subtle power. The haunted look in his eyes will stick in your mind for days after seeing this powerful film.

The Coens have never seemed interested in contributing lots of supplementary material to their DVDs, and this one is no exception. Three featurettes are included, all of them informative and interesting, but I wanted more. How about a closer look at how the Coens adapted McCarthy's novel? Or a commentary with the cast? At the very least, the trailer should be here. Why are so many DVDs coming out without them these days? Extras aside, the movie itself looks and sounds fantastic on DVD, and that alone makes it a must-buy. (R; Buena Vista Home Entertainment, $29.99)

"Gattaca" (special edition) -- I missed this 1997 science fiction thriller the first time around, but thankfully it arrives on DVD today in a new special edition. The film takes place in the "not too distant future," a time when genetic engineering is common and people born without the help of this process suffer widespread discrimination. Ethan Hawke plays one of these "In-Valids": Vincent Freeman (symbolism alert!), a janitor at the Gattaca Space Center who dreams of going on an upcoming mission into space. To accomplish this, he impersonates Jerome (Jude Law in his film debut), a troubled Valid who is paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident that might have been intentional. Everything goes well, until a director at the space center is murdered, and Vincent is the main suspect.

Visually, "Gattaca" is a treat. Writer-director Andrew Niccol, assisted by top-notch production design and cinematography, presents us with a sterile, nearly colorless future that is at once familiar and alien. The script is smart, raising questions about science and identity without getting too preachy. I wish, though, that the characters weren't written and acted at such a low key; it makes it hard to connect with them emotionally. This DVD includes new interviews with Hawke and Law, a new featurette about DNA testing and deleted scenes. (PG-13; Sony, $19.94)

Also out this week: "Bee Movie," Jerry Seinfeld's animated blockbuster, arrives today from Paramount Home Entertainment in single-disc and two-disc editions. The DVD was not available before today, so check out this column next week for a quick review.