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The opening of The Man Who Wasn’t There is a simple barber pole, which is symbolic, for the main character’s life that keeps on going on. The people who work in the place marked by the pole are Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thorton) and Frank (Michael Badalucco), who are brothers-in-laws. The time is 1949. Ed, our protagonist, is unhappily married to Doris (Frances McDormand). According to the frequent voice-overs, they married after knowing each other for three weeks. One day, he believes that Doris’ boss, David “Big Dave” Brewster (James Gandolfini), is having an affair with Doris. So, Ed blackmails him for $10,000, not just for that, but also to pay Creighton Tolliver (Jon Polito) for helping in investing a new-fangled “dry cleaning” service. Well, things spin out of control from there. This is one of those movies where the less you learn about it, the more you’ll enjoy it.
My one word for The Man Who Wasn’t There: wow! I’m not exactly sure how to put it into words, but it has a haunting beauty. It’s a film-noir, but also a drama, thriller, and a little part comedy, and maybe a pinch of romance. Its monochromatic cinematography is vibrant, wonderful and transfixing, as is the rest of the movie. It’s compelling and thoughtful, without one dull moment. I felt, well, I guess you could say I felt euphoric while I was watching this movie. Not in a happy way, but I felt one with Ed and not many movies can make me feel totally at peace with everything. It’s a somber experience, but it’s one I would like to take over and over.
Thorton was excellent. I’m not one of his largest fans, but I felt hopelessly sad for him, and the chain-smoking barber seems to be like second nature to him. In fact, it seemed even more like a noir because everyone smoked. Just an observation. Anyway, McDormand was good, but she didn’t really get the screen time she got in Fargo, which made everybody see how good of an actress she could be. Gandolfini was also excellent, and so was everyone else. Well, I thought Tony Shalhoub, as a fast-talking lawyer, wasn’t as good as he could have been. But everyone else was Grade-A.
The music, however scarce, was perfect for the movie, the mood, the surroundings. My one complaint? It meanders a bit in the second half, but that’s not really much. Thorton’s voice overs will probably make people not like this movie as much, but I thought it worked well with the movie. It wasn’t the same caliber as the narration in Fight Club or Forrest Gump, but it was still predomint, and I love it. All narration, I’m a sucker for, but this was truly great narration.
At the end, it got a little weird, what with UFOs and all, but reminds me of the ending of Memento with the main character realizing something. Overall, what I walked out with is the feeling that I will never look at hair in the same way again.
Rated R for a scene of violence.
Review Date: February 14, 2003