The Man Who Wasn't There

Rating:
Summary: 50 cent haircut in $8 movie
Review: This opening paragraph is the same for two movie reviews. This is the year for grand failures by grand masters. Steven Spielberg for "Artificial Intelligence," David Mamet for "Heist" (worth seeing), and Ethan and Joel Coen (no h) for "The Man Who Wasn't There" (also worth seeing). Every great artist produces failures, often thinking they are his best work. Hey. Welcome to the human species.

Maybe this is a good movie. I don't know. I guess you have to accept the idea that, in fiction, as in real life, things happen that are not expected, not foreseen, or even, in the case of this film, not foreshadowed in the screenplay. People act totally out of character at every turn. That's the failure of the movie, and maybe its strength.

This is true of the lead barber played wonderfully by Billy Bob Thornton (I think he has the lead in every movie playing in Atlanta this week), his barber "side-kick" played by Michael Baddalucco who you know as Jimmy Berluti on THE PRACTICE. It's true of the wife played by Mrs. Coen (wife of which Coen I'm not sure), and of the girl underplayed deliciously by Scarlett Johansson. (Hope they're all spelled right.)

Lest I forget, James Gandolfini has a major role in the first third of the movie which is probably all the time THE SOPRANOS and his role in "The Last Castle" (not worth seeing) permitted. This time he does not avoid his Tony Soprano verbal mannerisms, yet is such an artist, his character is nothing like Tony.

It's a movie about a calm surface.
And a strange, volatile sediment beneath.

It's a movie about people who are not accused of the crimes they didn't commit (you have to see it to understand that line) and who are accused of crimes they did not commit.

It's a movie that is humorous but not the least bit funny.

I do not know if it is self-indulgent garbage or something worth seeing again.

I do know that it is in black and white, no artsy color inserts, and that the cinematography is as good as any I have ever seen. I believe what they did was shoot in color and print to fairly high-contrast b/w film. Thus, just as I am ambivalent about this film, the visual effect is equally of-two-minds: It has the visual reality of a documentary, and reads simultaneously as a fantasy.

Maybe it really is a terrific movie. It's growing on me as I type.

Rating:
Summary: See this film
Review: The best of film noir done in true 50's style. Thorton always has a cigarette dangling, and Francis McDormand is fabulous as the wife. Takes surprising, unpredictable turns. One thing just builds on another. Entirely captivating and a must see.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent.
Review: The Coen brothers never cease to amaze me. This movie had my attention from the moment it started till the last credit rolled. The beautiful black and white cinematography and exquisite lighting, combined with the obligatory cigarette smoke which fills every scene, creates the perfect atmosphere for the dark story to unfold. Ed Crane is a very intriguing character, and Billy Bob Thornton did a wonderful job. I like that he "regrets nothing" even though no good came of anything he did. Oh, and I loved the bit about the flying saucers.

Rating:
Summary: A black and white study of Clueless
Review: THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE is a very dark comedy about a man so disconnected from reality that his choices and actions simply serve to engineer his own destruction. Describing him as clueless is almost an understatement.

Ed Crane, played by Billy Bob Thornton, is miserably married to Doris (Frances McDormand), and plods through life as a hair cutter on the Number Two Chair in his brother-in-law's barber shop in 1949 Central California. Meanwhile, Doris is having an affair with, and cooking the books for, her boss, Big Dave (James Gandolfino), who in turn manages the big department store inherited by his wife. Wanting to change his life, Ed falls for the spiel of a glib entrepreneur seeking a partner and $10,000 to open a garment cleaning shop that will use the new process of "dry-cleaning". To get the money, Ed, claiming via an anonymous letter to know of Big Dave's affair with Doris, successfully blackmails the former. Later, when Big Dave learns who ruined his life, he and Ed have a middle-of-the-night confrontation and a struggle to the death - Dave's death. From that point on, Ed's future is almost preordained.

Mind you, it's never established that Crane lacks intelligence. Occasionally, we see a glimmer of ... well, something ... behind those dark, unblinking eyes. Later in the film during a scene with their defense attorney, even Doris, who married Ed because he doesn't say much, appears startled to perceive something lurking behind his numbingly laconic exterior when he makes a revealing admission. However, Crane is so disengaged from everyday reality that just the fact that hair grows back after being cut becomes to him a phenomenon of profound philosophical significance. Then, if the audience is still slow to get the point, there's a subplot involving Ed and the teenaged, pianist daughter of a friend that seems almost an unnecessary detour until the viewer realizes that Crane's total misjudgment of the girl's apparent innocence (and talent) serves to reveal that even the his own sexual needs are beyond self-awareness.

The narrator of the storyline is Ed himself. Thus, it's appropriate that his sterile, emotionless worldview is reflected in the director's brilliant decision to photograph the movie in stark black and white. Indeed, had the film been in color, it would have been a markedly less effective presentation. All of the performances are first rate, though I think McDormand's Doris could have been exercised a little harder by the scriptwriters to display her total estrangement from her zombie spouse. Tony Shalhoub is outstandingly slick as the preening, expensive, defense attorney, Freddy Riedenschneider, imported from the Big City to defend Big Dave's accused killer. There's a scene during which Freddy expresses loud indignation at the deceased's former ability to cynically manipulate those around him. And this, coming from such a shyster!

I'd give the flick five stars except for the bit about the flying saucers. While it added an off-beat plot element, and enabled the producers to insert a deliciously bizarre front porch scene between Ed and Big Dave's widow, it was a bit over the top and arguably unnecessary. Nevertheless, THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE is one of the year's most notable pictures.

Rating:
Summary: Loved The Man Who W asn't There
Review: This was a great movie, with great photography and many "false endings" where you thought it was over and was glad it wasn't. Black & white photography was gorgeously, perfectly done. Acting of all in the movie was terrific. Excellent flick.

Rating:
Summary: stays with you
Review: i didnt think much of this on first viewing, but fancy seeing it again. it seemed too pat and obvious at first, with the constant voiceover giving me the impression it would have been a better short novel and the images added nothing other than people looking cool in black and white. but i gradually came to identify with the character a bit more as i turned it over in my mind. the coen brothers mode of communication even at its most direct is cluttered with surface elements that give that clever-(...) air to their work. but i think in retrospect this film might be a much-felt portrait of the common man in both his eternal aspect and his human aspect (his relationship with his wife is probably the most crucial thing in the film) which made me think of joyces ulysses. maybe its no coincidence their last film was (i think) a version of the original odysseus myth. or maybe being a clever (...) is just catching. anyway, the last scene of him and his wife inserted out of nowhere and saying nothing other than the character and his wife loved each other despite everything was subtle but affecting in a way i havent experienced since that sentimental ending to kieslowskis 'blue' (or even city lights). go see it, but be prepared to have it creep up on you later.

Rating:
Summary: Neat Noir, Coen-style
Review: There's a lot of talk about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle here, which would seem out of place, quantum mechanics and cinema not being usual bedfellows. But the Coen Bros., odd boys that they are, fit thing together nicely. And Heisenberg's theory, as illustrated here by a lawyer named Freddy Riedenschneider (and how come it's taken so long for the Coens to put the deliciously warped Tony Shalhoub in a movie? He chews scenery like it was a dinner roll, and nearly runs off with the film's second half) neatly encapsulates the best way to watch a Coen Bros. film: the more you look at their movies, the less you're bound to understand them. A Coen flick is mostly a visceral experience, not to be taken too seriously intellectually, no matter how much you think you should.

"The Man Who Wasn't There" begins with a luscious black and white shot of a... barber's pole! It's a glorious piece of Americana, but also a symbol of the intertwining of good and evil to follow. Ed Crane, second chair barber, is played by Billy Bob Thornton. His wrinkled puss and slick hairdo are rendered in caricature by the crisp cinematography of Coen stalwart Roger Deakins. Cigarette constantly ago, Thornton is a picture of immobility, more suited to still photography than motion pictures. He's a man of little ambition, stuck in a loveless marriage, and beset from all sides by yammer mouths and chatterboxes. Thornton, an actor who usually relies on a symphony of tics and eccentricities to construct his characters, does none of that here. He remains calm and poised, barely even using his distinctive voice, except in the ever-present narration. The effect is astonishing. Just like when Rob Reiner strapped the overly physical James Caan to the bed in "Misery", not allowing Thornton to work to his strengths makes him find the character in other, more surprising, ways. This is coupled with the bonus effect of keeping the audience on their toes, as they know that all that kinetic energy can bounce up at any moment. Thornton is in every scene here, and he carries the picture quite easily on his slim shoulders.

The rest of the cast, as is the case in any Coen Bros. film, is wildly eccentric and spot-on. Made up of a mixture of the Coens' stock company and some game newcomers, they all deliver fine performances. Frances McDormand (Mrs. Joel Coen) leads the group of Coen regulars. She is, as always, a wonder to watch. Her character, Mrs. Doris Crane, was lacking in redeeming qualities, but McDormand is such a ball of mesmerizing energy that you tend to forget that she's playing such a hateful woman. Jon Polito is good as usual playing an effete entrepreneur looking to hook an investor for a new invention called "dry cleaning". And Michael Badalucco plays Ed's annoying brother-in-law/employer, a motor mouth who's less annoying here than in the other roles I've seen him in.

The newcomers, besides Thornton, are lead by James Gandolfini, TV's Tony Soprano, as Big Dave Brewster, Doris' boss and paramour. Big Dave is little more than a device here, but Gandolfini is such an overwhelming and charismatic presence, he manages to create something enthralling out of nothing. Scarlett Johansson gets to be the innocent Lolita pursued by an older man, a role she conceded to Thora Birch in her other film role this year, "Ghost World". Ed and Birdy's relationship is handled with less tact than the similar situation was in that fine film, but it is still within the boundaries of good taste (uh, for the most part anyway). Also, it allows for repeated playings of Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' (hardly a film noir staple, that!). And it's worth mentioning again the fine work of the underused Tony Shalhoub. He gets one lengthy speech in an intensely lit jail room that's a wonder to watch, for not only his acting but also the interaction between character and lighting.

"The Man Who Wasn't There" is not as crowd pleasing as the Coens' biggest hit, last year's "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (which was hurled into the zeitgeist by "A Man of Constant Sorrow"). Those of you in the general population, please don't expect to leave the theatre humming a catchy tune like you did then. Those of you in the Coen Bros. Army will certainly get a kick out of this flick. There are moments of levity here, all played remarkably straight (my favourite: a half-drunk lawyer, who's constantly falling asleep while giving a client advice), but also moments of extreme Coen-style oddness. The movie would have ended a half-hour before it did in the hands of other directors, but the Coens go one step further, and give us a last half hour that will have you scratching your head even while grinning madly. Just don't get too caught up in trying to figure out what it all means, or you're bound to ruin it.

Rating:
Summary: The Coen Brothers' Finest Work
Review: I was permitted an advanced screening of this film with very little knowledge, only that it was the most recent work by the Coen Brothers, two of my favorite Hollywood collaborators. Frankly, I still expected a lot. I've never seen a film of theirs that hasn't pleased me in some respect. In fact, my favorite comedy of all time might be their Hudsucker Proxy, which I find too frequently underrated.

The Man Who Wasn't There is not for all; that much is certain. There is a lot peculiar stuff happening. Some have come to expect that from the Coen's; others abhor it. In this film, the viewer will most likely either love what they have done or hate it. Stylistically it matches--nay, exceeds--their previous work by creating a new vision of modern cinema (in this case by paying homage to the past). The effect is staggering and entertaining by itself.

Add to that mix the array of unique characters and humorous situations that the Coens' films are known for, multiply it several times, and you've got The Man Who Wasn't There. The story is simple enough, but intermingled with all of that a far more artistic and psychological vision into the American Everyman--or, if you will, the Barber.

As for Billy Bob Thornton's performance, there is nothing more that I can say, but superb. It is amazing: after witnessing the film I am firmly set that NO other actor could have portrayed the role of Ed Crane with a better sense of indifference and quirkiness. What carries his performance is not his believable execution of dialogue, but by his natural silence, always evoking the more contemplative man that the narration reveals, but without speaking it in words.

This movie will shock you at times, but keep in mind that this is always the intention and serves an amazing purpose to further the narrative. For Hollywood, this is a revolutionary film that extends the boundaries of modern cinema in a new direction that will no doubt influence films for years to come. There is a lot of weird and interesting stuff in this movie, but it is all picture-perfect. The visuals are staggering in their simplicity and straightforward nature. The characters are amusing and likeable, courtesy of the Coens' eternal attention to human idiosyncrasies.

This is, by far, the best picture I have seen this year, and well worth MORE than the price of admission. As I said before this movie CANNOT be appreciated by everyone, based on its revolutionary practices, but certainly those who allow themselves to be entertained by it will grant it the respect it deserves. Everyone should witness it AT LEAST for the experience. This, I can firmly declare, is my favorite of the Coen Brothers' work-and there's no reason it can't mean the same to you.

Rating:
Summary: decent Coen release
Review: Minute for minute, line for line, this movie is head and shoulders above most that you'll come upon in theaters or on your video-store shelves. However, it's about half a head below your average Coen brothers film. "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" was unusually uneven for the Coens, and "The Man Who Wasn't There" is pretty solid and consistent, but "O Brother" had peaks that "Man" doesn't match. This new movie is good, solid, and enjoyable, and if I sound at all negative it's because I know the Coens can do even better.

Rating:
Summary: Coens Return to Top Form
Review: The Coens return to seriousness in top form with this neo-noir classic. Roger Deakins endows the film with his rich, textured b & w cinematography. Billy Bob Thornton gives an understated, iconographic performance that recalls the minimalist of great noir actors like Mitchum and Bogart. A true treat for film lovers.