I don’t think there is anything wrong with twisting audience expectations, if they wanted to make the final show down less explosive or less gripping or whatever than that’s fine - but you still have to deliver SOMETHING, other wise the audiences are always going to come away dissapointed. I got the impression that the Coens weren’t really attempting anything deliberate there, but instead just blindly following the source material. The fact that they sell a tense showdown as the films climax, and then deliver the complete opposite (a slow and pondorous final act that has very little to do with the rest of the film) just makes things all the worse - at least ease the audience in to it!

I also disliked Tommy Lee Jones’s character, who I felt didn’t really have anything to do with the story. He seemed to serve as a kind of thematic crutch, just popping up in scenes to muse over how the country is in such a bad state - and to have this character dominate the final act, when I never really felt like the film was about him in the first place, just added to the dissapointment.

All this said however, the film was incredible up to that three quater mark, really one of my favourites for a long time.

P.S. Really enjoy your reviews and your site, keep up the good work.