Film Review: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
Coen Brothers maintained the favour of critics’ establishment by indulging its cinephilia. One of the methods was to have their films in period setting and thus including all kind of references and details that would be incomprehensible to general audience, but that would be recognised as “clever” by those familiar with various periods of Hollywood history. One such example can be found in The Man Who Wasn’t There, 2001 black comedy that represented both homage to and parody of film noir.
The plot is set in Californian city of Santa Rosa in 1949. Protagonist and narrator is Ed Crane (played by Billy Bob Thornton), modest and quiet barber who doesn’t allow anything to disrupt well-established routine of his life. That includes even realisation that his wife Doris (played by Frances McDormand) is having an affair with “Big” Dave Matthews (played by James Gandolfini), manager of large department store where she works as a bookkeeper. That changes after he meets Creighton Tolliver (played by Jon Polito), travelling “investor” who offers “opportunity of lifetime” in form of dry cleaning shops. Ed is asked to provide 10,000 US$, which he intends to provide by blackmailing Big Dave. But his plan starts go very wrong, people start to die and Ed gets involved in murder and criminal trial.
Many critics were hailing The Man Who Wasn’t There as masterpiece. There are some arguments for such claims is limited to technical criteria. Roger Deakins provides excellent black-and-white cinematography and his lighting techniques try to mimic 1940s Hollywood classics. On the other hand, music by Carter Burwell, Coen Brothers’ old associate, doesn’t go hand in hand with the use of Beethoven’s classic motives. The most valuable element of the film is the cast. Billy Bob Thornton, with haircut that makes him resemble Montgomery Clift and stony face that doesn’t reveal any emotion throughout the film, is playing one of the most interesting roles of his career. The rest of the cast is also good, including character actor Tony Shalhoub in the role of greedy attorney Freddy Ridenschneider, and young Scarlett Johannson represents a bit of revelation in the role of seductive teenager.
On the other hand, Joel and Ethan Cohen were apparently aware that good direction and acting can’t compensate for the script that at times looks too banal. So, they decided to spice it up with couple of motives and scenes that seem unusual. All they manage is to create impression that some of this content was brought from other films by mistake and that also makes The Man Who Wasn’t There overlong. At the end of the day, this is good film that could be enjoyed even by those viewers who aren’t big fans of Coen Brothers’ work, although at times it gives impression that its form is more important than its content.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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