Cannes Film Festival

No one could complain that the Coen Brothers haven't redeemed themselves after the disappointments of Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers with this tense and blood-spattered thriller adapted from Cormac McCarthy's brilliantly written novel. It ranks alongside their best work.

Set in deepest Texas, it follows the fate of James Brolin's Llewelyn, who stumbles across the bloody aftermath of a drugs deal in the desert, picks up a suitcase full of money and hopes no one will know. But he has reckoned without Xavier Bardem's Chigurh, a psychopathic killer who will stop at nothing to get at the $2 million stash, or Tommy Lee Jones's about-to-retire sheriff, both of whom are on his tail.

Sending his wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald) away, he is chased from motel to motel, aware that there's a bleeper in the stolen suitcase that directs Chigurh to wherever he is.

So it's Llewelyn versus Chigurh, with the police and Woody Harrelson's shady investigator some way behind. Bardem makes a fearsomely Satanic villain who flips a coin to decide who gets killed and who is set free, and Joel and Ethan Coen, assisted by Roger Deakins' striking cinematography, orchestrate the chase thriller with unalloyed glee. This is a film noir that is absolutely pitch black and rivetingly watchable.