The Man Who Wasn't There

Rating:
Summary: just exelent!
Review: I still do not understand why this movie was ingonered for the oscars. This is one of the best movies of all times.

This movie is a piece of art, a lot better than a "A beautifull mind". the acting, the photography, the edition, the music, the script...just perfect!

Rating:
Summary: This movie is so bad . . .
Review: I bought this movie based on the reviews I'd read by critics and "experts". I'm going to have to assume the people that gave this movie such high reviews were basing their scores on the fact that the movie has some original sequences, and doesn't follow the mold of most of today's mass-market [stuff]. But somewhere along the line, these critics have forgotten that being new and original doesn't necessarily equate with being good.

This movie is too long, the plot is boring, etc., etc.. I could sit and type for hours about how bad this movie is. It's simply pitiful. Fans of the Big Lebowski - prepare to be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Movie of The Year
Review: This movie is excellent. I've heard of people saying it was too long and drawn out, but people said the same to The Shawshank Redemption when it was in theatres. Both movies share a significance to patience and thoughtful narrative. The movie is about a man of few words and many thoughts, lost in the fog of society, unsure of where to turn next. It's a film noir only at the surface, with the hero as a dispassionate failure, invisible to everyone surrounding him because of his own impotence. The silky black and white film captivates a man of indifference trying in futility to hold on to what little passion he has left. The gorgeous classical music is enchanting as everything crumbles, and only his unconcern can save him from desperation. And in that unconcern, he finds solace. His uncertain apathy and aimless disenchanted existentialism bring an imperceptible gravity to the events that unfold and spiral into an electrifying end of hopeful inconclusiveness and beauty. A must see.

Rating:
Summary: Top-notch film without much of...anything...
Review: Joel and Ethan Coen's finest excuse for cinematic style in a long time. The blackmail plot involving a barber and his ... wife is at times surreal (with Deakin's brilliant cinematography), but the main reason for watching this movie is the curiosity of what the Coens are going to throw at you next. If you have the patience, then try this well made and artistically astute rarity. Rated R for language and a brief act of murderous violence.

Rating:
Summary: bloodless and boring
Review: Well-acted, with sumptuous black & white cinematography by Roger Deakins, and still the most bloodless and boring noir in film history. Which begs the question: Why hire Billy Bob Thornton, an actor with personality to burn, to play a character with no personality at all?

...

Rating:
Summary: Half of the story is in the pacing
Review: ... and while others may say this movie is slow, i say that it is just right. It's those bizarre silences in-between lines that allow you to crawl into the characters' heads and see the utter absurdity of what is playing out in the scene.. but that's only if you allow yourself to be absorbed by it.

my favorite example of this occurs in a scene where Crane (billy bob thornton) is finishing up cutting a boy's hair, but he keeps staring at his head.. several seconds go by as we see what he is seeing.. and finally he turns to his brother-in-law and asks "you ever think about hair?". We are then treated to more silence and again we see what Crane is seeing.. the top of the boy's head. After some seemingly serious introspection, he again speaks: "you know.. it's a part of us." Another bizarre silence.. "and it just keeps growing".

While this scene says nothing about the film's central story, it is very representative of the character Ed Crane.. and it's moments like this that make the story as a whole work in the way that it does.

This movie is beautifully filmed, and at times, a very tragic story.. but make no mistake, this is an excercise in surrealism, and as such, it is quite different from any movie i've ever seen. But, that being said, there is some serious magic going on in this movie. The 40's noir style is captured near perfectly, and makes for some very entertaining viewing... especially if you're familiar with the films of the period.

Fans of the coen brothers' films should love this one. I'm a fan, and it was everything i was hoping for and more.

Now.. where's the Barton Fink DVD???

Rating:
Summary: A great work of art
Review: This black and white coen brothers film fits perfectly in the collection of dark humor and film noir. The most well done aspect of this movie is the cinematography. With each shot, it is like looking at a black and white photo album. With this a strong emphasis on light is discovered. The coen brothers should be given credit for their ability to write and make original, interesting movies.

Rating:
Summary: Make Mine The Executive Contour!
Review: Well...I am not a gigantic Coen Brothers fan,nor do I think of Billy Bob Thornton as a brilliant actor....but this film changes things a bit.After seeing the excellant "O Brother Where Art Thou?",I've been a little less critical of the Coen Brothers works.( I've found their previous films mostly hit and miss. ).

This film is a great homage to all those great film noirs that came out way back when. Mystery! Murder! Intrigue! A Lovers Triangle! Dry Cleaning! Flying Saucers! It's all here! Billy Bob Thornton as Ed Crane,the guy who doesn't say much,speaks volumes with his presence and mannerisms,as the mild mannered barber. Tony Shalhoub is great as the obnoxiously smug lawyer.( How did he not get an Oscar for this performance? ).Frances McDormand,James Gandolfini,and Jon Polito all give great performances. The writing is smart,witty,and clever,and it's never obvious. I really enjoyed this film for it's originality,and wonderful use of black and white. A must see!

Rating:
Summary: Nearly perfect tale of death and doom
Review: So, now I have two great movies ("Ghost World" and this) and two good movies ("The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" and "Joe Dirt") for 2001. Although I liked "Ghost World" better, on the whole, "Man Who Wasn't There" is a great movie, much better than "Curse of Jade Scorpion," which is something I thought I'd never say, not because I thought Woody Allen's movie was so great (face it, he's slipping), but because I could never get into a Coen brothers movie before, despite several attempts.

First of all, I thought Billy Bob Thornton's performance really kept the movie going along. He seems to be the only actor recently come up that understands the importance of subtle shifts in facial gestures and posture to create a mood or to change character. It was like a virtuoso performance, just watching him. He's a sort of "thinking man's actor," like Orson Welles, but without the bombast. I liked him in "The Apostle," but his character was more straightforward in that one. He's got the same thing going in "Man Who Wasn't there" that the great method actors, Brando, Clift, Landau and Strasberg had at their peak, which is really weird, because if you look at him in this one, Thornton looks like a cross between Montgomery Clift (after the car crash) and an older Martin Landau.

I loved the lawyer, played by Tony Shalhoub. He's so smooth and polished, and knows how to use words like a stiletto (thanks, Burt Lancaster, for that line). The scene in which Thornton's wife, Doris (played by Frances McDormand) kills herself is a screamer; He has absolutely no remorse over her death except for the fact it denied him an opportunity for courtroom pyrotechnics.

I also loved the references to such movies as "Double Indemnity" (though the name of the dept. store, 'Nirdlinger's' comes from the victims name in James M. Cain's book, not the movie, in which Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler changed it to 'Dietrichson,'
though there's a 'Dietrichson' in this movie [medical examiner], plus the plot is loosely based on 'Indemnity.'). The pansy (Jon Polito) stayed at "Hobart Arms," which is out of "The Big Sleep." The scene in which the kid diving finds the pansy was right out of "Night of the Hunter," and Billy Bob Thornton's undeterred enthusiasm in molding Birdie (Scarlett Johansson) into a great concert pianist reminded me of Jimmy Stewart's mania for reincarnating Judy as the dead Madeleine in "Vertigo." Of course that flops, and Scarlett Johannson gets Thornton into a car crash in an R-rated version of how John Garfield killed Lana Turner in "The Postman Always Rings Twice."

Of course, I knew beforehand that the cinematography was superb. I thought that meant "superb by today's substandards," but I'd put its camerawork up against "Double Indemnity," "Key Largo" or "Notorious."

The only drawback is that Carter Burwell's score was so laid back. This movie deserved a great, dramatic Germanic score, heavy on tubas, bassoons, double-basses and trombones. I liked the Beethoven sonatas played so flatly by Scarlett Johansson, but the score apart from them was sort of generic. So, I give this one 3-1/2 out of 4, based on the score. With a score like Max Steiner's (like"The Big Sleep"), Roy Webb ("Out of the Past"), Alfred Newman ("All About Eve"), Miklos Rosza ("Double Indemnity"), Franz Waxman ("Sorry, Wrong Number"), Henry Mancini ("Touch of Evil") or Bernard Herrmann ("Cape Fear" or "Vertigo"), this movie would have been 100% solid.

As far as the DVD is concerned, this is the cleanest transfer I've seen of a black-and-white print. Don't rent, buy this one.

Rating:
Summary: A Man without Passion!
Review: The movie is very nicely done in black and white, very elegant reeking with style. The Coen brothers know how to make a film! Billy Bob plays Ed Crain without any affect. All Ed does is take up space in the world and smoke and smoke and smoke. Ed is not in touch with his spirit, what and who he is, baffles him. Hair grows but it has no spirit its alive and it keeps growing on a person who has died for a little while, wow what a symbol for Ed. He is dead without emotion, without a soul, also compared to the pianist he meets, Bertie played by Scarlett Johaneson, her music is nice and she doesn't make mistakes but there is passion lacking, the piece is not alive and is without spirit. There is one dream Ed has, where he sits on a couch with his wife and he tries to talk to her, which is really really unusual for him and her response is when he gets her name out, is "I didn't say anything" as if Ed would not have anything to say, except in response to her. Narcissitic, yes but Ed has created this persona for himself and his wife, so he is as much to blame. His life seems meaningless without any direction, he falls into things without much goal setting or thought. He doesn't seem to know what to do with emotions and when Bertie reaches out to him sexually, he gets flustered. He is trapped, trapped inside himself. The Coens use alot of symbols in their film, I like how they use the spacecraft symbol in different objects throughout the movie and also the shaving. I am not sure what they were trying to show when he was getting shaved at the end, I know that Ed shaved his wifes legs in the beginning of the film, maybe it was some form of justice or maybe just a way to trigger a memory of his past life. Ed narrates as the movie plays out visually, so memory is a key element. Anyways, a really good flick, almost made it to 5 stars.

Lisa Nary