Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (Philippe Claudel, 2008)

In I've Loved You So Long, Kristin Scott Thomas arrives at her sister's after a 15-year absence so haunted and withdrawn, she's only there as an extension to her cigarette. Early warning flashes of cutesiness in the sister's feisty adopted Vietnamese children and stroke-silenced father-in-law with a twinkle in his eyes soon lead to an irresistible momentum in her re-entry into the world of the living. And so we're set on a linear narrative trajectory, following the gradual revelation of why she was in prison and disowned by her parents.

This is basically a superior soap that constantly, teasingly promises more depth than it's capable of delivering. It's just fortunate that Scott Thomas does wan and emotionally tortured with such understated poise; her performance raises the whole piece above the humdrum until the crashing shock of the frankly illogical denouement.

5/10

No Country for Old Men (the Coen brothers, 2007)

Here, the Coens return to their knitting, after losing their way with remakes and genre imitations in The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty, and it's a huge relief, even if the fallback position is just a Peckinpah-soaked cascade of bloody misfortunes heaped on top of each other. Josh Brolin witnesses something he shouldn't have and gets Javier Bardem as a terminator on his tail. Tommy Lee Jones crops up occasionally as a weary sheriff who's always a step behind, tacked on to the events as he is to the text.
We're in the Coen brothers' netherworld of Gothic western again, more or less the feel of Blood Simple 20 years on, far from the warmth of Fargo or the pathos of Arriaga's The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, in which Tommy Lee Jones occupied a similar role, and which resonates through the Coens' take on the same landscape. But here, ultimately, it's no country for anyone, not even Bardem's icily terrifying destroyer.
It's hardly their best work, in that it's hopelessly nihilistic, and therefore lacks a real point. But few films of recent years take you to that concluding realisation with such panache.

7/10

Southland Tales (Richard Kelly, 2006)

So, how to follow up Donnie Darko? How's about putting all your cards down and letting the world see that you can spin up a 'big concept' and not actually have a clue as to how to resolve it...Kelly meets his end in a big way by attempting too much, with new-age, computer games, musicals and low-brow comedy all somehow forced to serve an apocalyptic Christ-parable. It's one of those rare films that you watch like a slow-motion car crash; the horrors just keep on getting worse and worse. And when you think you've had the last of it, Christopher Lambert turns up.

As it happens, having The Rock playing a neurotic geek as the main lead in a mess that probably imagines it's an eclectic ensemble piece a la Altman is one of the few things that'll get you through this. He would be well advised to do another proper actioner pronto; The Mummy 5 or somesuch could not be as embarrassing. As for Kelly, as least M. Night Shyamalan managed to rattle off two whole good films before he was found out.

3/10