Goose Egg Marathon Film #28The Man Who Wasn't There(2001, Joel and Ethan Coen)
"...and through all of it, we cut the hair"You come to expect a certain level of quality going into a Coen Brother's film. You know the cinematography will be impeccable, the characters will be memorable, the dialog witty and at it's core will be a member of the fringe of society getting in over his head in an effort to better his life in a way that might be seen by the audience to be foolhardy at best. So in this case, did the Coen brothers deliver yet again? And did the sum of its parts add up to a collective masterpiece like
Fargo or
No Country?
I'll answer Yes to the first question and a qualified No to the second question.
The film is set in late 1940's Santa Rosa, California and follows a 'second chair barber', Ed Crane, who's going through the motions of a uninspiring career and a listless marriage. By chance he learns about an "investment opportunity". He has no aspirations of wealth, but infatuated with the simple thought of something new he makes some pretty poor decisions to take advantage of the opportunity. As you might expect, these decisions have unintended consequences...
The film is set in the noir genre. Noir is not a favorite genre of mine, since by it's very design it keeps us an arm's distance from the characters. But here it is as effective use of the style as I've ever seen. I not only tolerated the internal monologue voice overs stagy performances, I quite enjoyed them.
I can't go much longer without talking about the Black and White. It was filmed in color and converted to black and white in post. Roger Deakins is the cinematographer, and although his shooting style is fairly minimalistic throughout, the effect really worked for me. I loved the black and white. It made me wish the old great black and white films could be as clean as this was. Instead of going on and on I'll let some of the screenshots speak for themselves:
Cinematography:
The themes were pretty interesting in this film, especially in light of A Serious Man released late last year. Here, the Coen's introduce the uncertainty principle with respect to the concept that our perception of an event has the potential to effect the event we're perceiving. But again, like in A Serious Man, there seems to be a slightly-less-than arbitrary force at work (Karma?) that leads people to their ultimate redemption or punishment.
This would be a great double feature for an in depth film discussion with those interested in film and curious about the basic concepts of quantum mechanics. Such a discussion could lead to quite a treatise on Coen brother's themes in films as a whole.
I was a bit uninspired by the performances. Hmmm... maybe that's too strong a way to say it. It's the noir style that doesn't really let me in their heads where I want to be...but I'll admit that's not the point. My favorite characters were Big Dave, played by James Gandolfini) and Birdy Abundas, played by a surprisingly good Scarlett Johansson. I'm neither a hater or apologist for Billy Bob Thornton. I have to say it's hard to think of anyone more perfect for that role. I'd hate to imagine a Coen regular like John Turturro or George Clooney trying to pull off his scowlly oppressed persona. BTW: I challenge anyone to watch this film, then Slingblade and A Simple Plan in succession and tell me BBT isn't a great actor.
"It's just a bowl of Goddam cherries. Congratulations on the goddamn cherries!"I've often heard the debate about whether the Coen brothers make fun of their characters. Whether or not this is the case is not the point with me. For me I'm just highly appreciative that they have such curiousity about small town America. They either work entirely outside the framework of its broad comfortable archtypes or they take them to their logical extremes. And it's more interesting than just another film set in LA. At one point a "big city lawyer" says to Ed, "I'm an atourney, you're a barber. You don't know anything." when in fact, it that instance, he's the only one who does. This sums up the theme of the entire movie - and for me the Coen's take on their subjects.
Verdict:
Great Coen's take on the noir genre. Gorgeous cinematography and the sharp dialog we've come to expect. But in the end still felt a bit lacking
Grade: A-