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"The Man Who Wasn't There"
(Reviewed October 12, 2001)
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"The Man Who Wasn't There" is only the second Coen Brothers movie I have seen that I have no desire whatsoever to see again (the first being "The Big Lebowski")--and I have seen all of their movies except "The Hudsucker Proxy." It's not that "The Man Who Wasn't There" is a terrible movie. It's...okay...but it seems more like something the Coens did as a technical exercise than anything else. When the main thing that's praiseworthy about a movie is its cinematography, well, you figure it out.
Billy Bob Thornton is a barber who gets mixed up in blackmail and murder, in a plot that owes a hell of a lot to James M. Cain's far superior "The Postman Always Rings Twice." Scarlett Johannson (of this year's "Ghost World" and "American Rhapsody") shows up as a husky-voiced teen. James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos" also appears. The plot is too dull and deadpan to be much fun, and too self-consciously ironic to offer any real "film noir" suspense.
Basically, a real disappointment from a pair of filmmakers who are capable of doing much better work.
Back Row Grade: C-
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