Ein Freund zum Verlieben (2000)

Ein Freund zum Verlieben: Directed by John Schlesinger. With Madonna, Rupert Everett, Benjamin Bratt, Illeana Douglas. Abbie, tired of failed relationships, has a one-night-stand with her gay friend; they agree to raise the resulting baby together.

“No Country for Old Men won four Academy Awards in 2007, including Best Picture and Best Director(s). Despite the critical acclaim, the Coen Brotheru0026#39;s adaptation of Cormac McCarthyu0026#39;s novel was probably a bit of a head-scratcher to many people.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe filmu0026#39;s narrative begins in familiar fashion, introducing you to the main characters and setting up the plot using recognized, established filmic devices. Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon a suitcase filled with cash and wants to keep it for himself. Anton Chigurh is the sociopath who will stop at nothing to get the cash back. Ed Bell is the Sheriff tasked with bringing Chigurh to justice and, it is presumed, keeping Moss and his wife, Carla Jean, from danger. In addition, thereu0026#39;s a corporate backer, a hired gun, and a Mexican gang who are also after the cash (i.e., the McGuffin). So much for the usual narrative elements.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhen the film continues far beyond the point that the expected narrative structure breaks down, viewers are left to grasp at what the film is actually about. What, if anything, is this film trying to say?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI propose that the film is, among other things, a meditation on the impotence of human and divine systems of justice in light of unflinching, unrelenting, random, radical evil. There are a number of elements in the film that indicate such a meditation, but one need not look much further than the meditations of Sheriff Bell, whose words begin and end the film. Consider:u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;There was this boy I sent to the u0026#39;lectric chair at Huntsville Hill here a while back. My arrest and my testimony. He killt a fourteen-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion but he told me there wasnu0026#39;t any passion to it. Told me that heu0026#39;d been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out heu0026#39;d do it again. Said he knew he was going to hell. u0026#39;Be there in about fifteen minutesu0026#39;. I donu0026#39;t know what to make of that. I sure donu0026#39;t. The crime you see now, itu0026#39;s hard to even take its measure.u0026quot; u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWith these words, the filmu0026#39;s u0026quot;story lineu0026quot; unfolds, with Sheriff Bell trying, and failing, to be effective.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAt the end of the film, the retired Sheriff Bell describes a dream to his wife:u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;It was like {my father and I} was both back in older times and I was on horseback goingu0026#39; through the mountains of a night. Goingu0026#39; through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on goingu0026#39;. Never said nothingu0026#39; goingu0026#39; by. He just rode on past… and he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down and when he rode past I seen he was carryinu0026#39; fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. u0026#39;Bout the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goingu0026#39; on ahead and he was fixinu0026#39; to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up.u0026quot; u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film is nihilistic in both structure and content. If you would like to force a less despairing ending, Bellu0026#39;s dream could be interpreted as a ray of hope: a light shines in the darkness! On the other hand, it is a dream that he wakes up from.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI donu0026#39;t know what to make of that. I sure donu0026#39;t. But that doesnu0026#39;t mean I canu0026#39;t try.”