Rating: 
Summary: A Dark Tale
Review: I would have to rate the Coen bro's as high as anybody in hollywood for shear artistic brilliance. I would follow them down any dark alley if they were showing a movie in that alley. The fact that this movie was a disappointment should really come as no surprise to anybody. Nobody has a perfect record of great films and it was only a matter of time before the Coen's stumbled a bit. I've never been impressed by Thornton but I can see why he was cast as the dark protagonist in the story. Unfortunately he just dosn't seem an interesting character and the lack of any interesting characters in the film is where the Coen's drop the ball. This was the big surprise to me after all the great characters in all the other Coen pictures from the witty gangsters in Millers crossing to the archetypal characters in Art Thou. I will say my faith in the Coen's is by no means diminished but I don't think this is one I will revisit.
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning
Review: This is just excellent work of Coen Brothers.Everything from script,camera,actors,music to B&W format is great.This is a must have for every Coen fan.
Rating:
Summary: 'MAN WHO WASN'T THERE" all there, Coen's triumph again!
Review: Billy Bob Thorton, the "love 'im or hate 'im" oddball, bad boy of Hollywood, and tragic hero of "Man", mentions in the supplemental "Making Of.." section of the DVD that he immediately said "Yes" to starring in the Coens' latest opus, because the Coens never "suck". And how true that is. While some critics and Coen-affectionadoes alike deemed "Man" as not the best Coen Brothers flick, "The Man Who Wasn't There" has many positive points, and is a faithful contemporary film tribute to the great film noir movies of the 1930's and '40's ("Casablanca", "Big Sleep", etc.)Set in a small California town, a no account barber (Thorton) suddenly finds his shave and a haircut world twisted and turned upside down by a series of incidents involving his misguided wife (McDormand), her big shot department store manager boss (Gandolfini), and a thrifty entrepreneur, which leads him down a dark tunnel of intrigue, sabotage, murder, and depravity. If the Coens remarkable sense of screenwriting, with such witty expressions and carefully brewed, slow roasted dialogue, humor, and for one of a better words "screen-play (just good fun filmmaking) doesn't ensnare you into this Coen flick, then Roger Deakins masterful photography will leave you spellbound. "Man" was hardly filmed in simple black and white, but a remarkably deep, forboding, and deliberate manipulation of darkness and light. "Man" then, transcends film, and becomes art, and it becomes clearly obvious Deakins and the Coens achieved what they set out to do here. Certainly a long shot departure from "O Brother", but not neglecting their own unique abilities to make us think as well as laugh at what we see and hear played out on the screen, the Coens have certainly created a film, or should I say "art film", that captivates us and shows us what exactly the art of filmmaking is. Yet another gleaming gem of a movie goes into the crown that is the Coen Brothers shimmering film repetiore.
Rating:
Summary: Good, But Not Good as "Fargo"; Stylish But Maybe Too Slow
Review: I have seen many of the Coen Brother's films, and this one "The Man Who Wasn't There" left me wondering what to think about it. Ok, critics (and his devoted fans alike) would love it because of its fantastic style; whereas some other audience would loath the day they decided to watch it, saying "It's slow, pompous, and not so interesting." Me? I still don't know. Whichever you may respond, one thing is clear: Billy Bob is a great actor even when he plays a role of an ordinary barber in the late 40s, whose life has been, and will be full of disillusion. Ed Crane, Bob Thornton's character, is a loser, and he knows it, and tells it through his opening narrations. Even when he is chain-smoking with a cool style, he knows it. Or even when a stranger came to have a haircut, and talked about investment of "dry-cleaning," he just listens silently. With $10,000 you can be rich? Never believe that! But he thinks about it later; maybe his life could be changed a little. Just a little. So, he sits behind a typewriter and wrote a short note to Dave, a boss of a department store where his wife Doris works, and with whom Doris probably is having an affair. Here is another Coen Brother's favorite topic -- one wrong footstep gradually leading to abyss. But do not try to "relate" to any characters of the film, let alone Ed. Just watch how he slowly -- yes, slowly and steadily -- involves people around him into a murder case that eventually changes their lives, especially Ed's. The story, however, is told in a most dispassionate way, and the hero is captured with a detached tone. Many people rightly compared the film's black-and-white styles to those of film noir of the 1940s, but thrills or suspence is carefully removed from the entire work. Don't try to hear a big noise when Ed gets a car crash. You only see his car flying slowly across the screen -- and from an unexpected angle. Since the Brother thought about the original idea in 1994, the film took a long time to be made, and perhaps too long. Sometimes, we must admit, the film seems to wallow in unnecesary and ineffective dialogues -- reference to Roswell and its famous UFO incident don't just work within tightly-knit script, and maybe as they did in "Blood Simple" Joel and Ethan Coen should have cut some part of the film off, which runs nearly 2 hours. And while reliable and underrated Tony Shalhoub is given a big, prominent role (a rare thing, indeed) as a lawyer who convinces anybody of ANYTHING for his expensive fee, Frances McDormand, good as she is, is somehow wasted. Total impression is that the film is a bit stretched at certain places and at its ending it looks slightly hurriedly told. "The Man Who Wasn't There" belongs to the best things Coens did, though it doesn't reach the height of excellent "Fargo." Recommended for Billy Bob's deft acting, and Roger Deakins's photography is another plus, but not a place to start watching the Brothers's original works. Watch "Fargo" first if you haven't, then you might savor the unique style of them.
Rating: 
Summary: I'll be gracious and give this film TWO STARS.
Review: Okay, okay, I like the Coen brothers just as much as the next guy but please, people, this film lacked quite a bit. Billy Bob did a good job - for the script they gave him - but the film was dry and unusually uneventful. I predicted almost all of the film just by knowing that the film would no doubt take a turn for the worse...and than another turn, and another, and so on. I heard someone tell me, "If you like Fargo, you'll like this film." WRONG! I loved Fargo but The Man Who Wasn't There was incredibly predictable. In fact, I was surprised that the other barber didn't end up shooting the innocent piano girl by the end of the film. I recommend this film for one reason: Billy Bob Thorton. He does another standout job as a boring barber with too much time to think about things. As this film turns out, however, those two combinations spell one heck of a disasterous plot line. I went into this film expecting a thinkers movies along the same lines as Fargo or A Simple Plan. What I got was a rude awakening in what two talented brothers are capable of when they put their minds on a creative vacation.
Rating: 
Summary: A MIXED BAG
Review: The Coens give us a hash of various existentialist and noir elements. Perhaps most striking is the similarity between Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) and the unnamed protagonist of Camus' The Stranger. Both are very quiet, passive, and reserved, and neither is prone to deep introspection. Both have peeves concerning other people, peeves they keep to themselves. Neither of them seem happy, but they do not seem unhappy either. Both men make a series of poor decisions that ultimately lead them to be executed. Only as they sit on death row do they seem able to make peace with the universe. Unfortunately the Coens have nothing new thematically to add to The Stranger and some of the classic American noir books (e.g., The Postman Always Rings Twice) that followed in its wake. Even worse, the plot falls apart near the end. To take just one example, why doesn't Doris's boss get the $10,000 back from the hustler after killing him? That being said, the cinemaphotography in this film is outstanding, ranking with the best examples of the 1940s. It is exciting to know that there is somebody out there who can practice the dying art of black-and-white cinemaphotography so well. Billy Bob Thornton shows again why he is one of the best actors of his generation. Somehow his quiet stillness manages to hold our attention throughout the movie. Nobody has done so much with so few words since Tom Hanks in Castaway. Thornton's character Ed is a barber, which allows the Coens to obsess over one of their favorite subjects: men's hair and hair gel. I especially enjoyed the scene in which various men's 1940s hairstyles are demonstrated, including "The Executive," which Ronald Reagan kept through the 1980s.
Rating:
Summary: Ed is
Review: ed crane is one of my new cinematic heroes. simply because ed is. so calm and quiet. it is amazing to watch billy bob thorton in anything. he is always a genius and truly unique, but in this movie, billy bob didn't exist it was only ed. and Ed is.
Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous movie.
Review: Like almost everyone else says, this is a beautiful example of Film Noir. It has rock-solid performances from the Coens' regulars (McDormand, Polito, Badalucco) as well as a fine cast of today's better actors (Thornton, Gandolfini, Shaloub). The look is spectacular and could have come out of most 40's and 50's hard-boiled detective stories. Some of the scenes are also lit in a Feliniesque super-contrast of light and dark. Ed Crane suffers from a general ennui and total lack of care about everything. This spills over into his every action. It is this uncaring which prevents him from being emotionally or physically open with his wife. It prevents him from confronting his wife's lover, Dave. It prevents him from truly helping his wife when he finally decides to tell the truth. And it prevents him from taking any real action to save his own life. However, Ed's detachment is not a result of his actions alone. His wife, friends, and family all work to keep him silent and on the fringe of their lives. This marginalization of Ed finally results in the total collapse of everything around him. In fact, Ed's one attempt to take an active interest in something results in an unwelcome sexual advance from a much younger woman and an horrific crash that nearly kills him. Joel and Ethan Coen nearly perfectly capture the dissociation from life that is charactaristic of many in this modern age. This is a very good movie held back only by its too many references to 50's pop culture and the somewhat predictable end to Ed's blackmailing of his wife's lover (that is, Dave's attack on Ed and Ed's inadvertant killing of Dave.) Truly one of the Coens' better works.
Rating:
Summary: The Coen Brothers "Zelig"
Review: Woody Allen made a masterpiece with this Man Without Qualities theme, Zelig. If you loved that film you will admire this one as well. Though the Coen Brothers movie is not nearly as much fun as the Allen movie it is a similar case study and strikes many of the same notes as the earlier film. Zelig was a five star film in my mind but the Coen's Man Who Wasn't There maybe falls a notch below it because though it uses lots of gimmicks and quotes from lots of sources it moves rather slow in stretches. The film will prove a little too long and dull and sleepy for some viewers. Frances McDormand is great in yet another one of her no nonsense roles but she seems to be going through some all too familiar motions with this role. Billy Bob Thornton is great. His character doesn't say much to the other characters in the film but as the film goes on and he begins to have some insight into the trajectory his own life has taken you find he has more and more to say. The film is noir in look and the voice over is a classic noir story telling device but in addition the Coen Brothers add their quirky touches to the genre. For me those quirky touches kind of tread over the noir feel and for me anyway made a very good film fall a couple notches. The fifties pop culture quotes worked in some cases(Lolita sub plot) and didn't work in other cases(flying saucer motif). The piano pieces used for the film are perfect and that really made this black and white film even more elegant and gave it its most attractive dimension. The music is the sound equivalent of the Man Who Wasn't There's longing to be.
Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly Funny
Review: "The Man Who Wasn't There" is one of the finest examples of classic film noir produced since the 1950's, thanks to the able handling of the Coen brothers. These guys have done their homework and in the process given the viewing audience a hauntingly beautiful motion picture to savor. I believe Billy Bob Thorton deserved an Academy Award Nomination for his very restrained performance of Ed Crane, the hapless, chain smoking 2nd chair barber. And Francis McDormand once again proves she is one of the best actors around with her sturdy portrayal of Ed's ambitious wife. Beautifully filmed in black and white, the story centers on Ed's Crane's disenchantment with his dismal life and the discovery that his wife is having an affair with her boss "Big Dave" played by James Gandolfini. Ed decides after hearing of an opportunity to get into the newly developing dry cleaning industry, to take advantage of the situation and blackmail "big Dave" for the investment capital. This ill-fated decision is the catalyst that starts the ball rolling on a downward spiral that ultimately destroys almost everyone in Ed's lonely life. The portrait painted here is at times painful to watch, but the Coens' know exactly when and where to allow the dark humor to emerge when these ordinary people get caught up in their own acts of corruption. Watching "The Man Who Wasn't There" is like watching a tall building implode in slow motion, both beautiful, and terrible at the same time, once you start watching you can't take your eyes away from it until it all falls down.
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