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The Coen Brothers are weird.
If you take this as a known going into the movie, it will certainly help you know what to expect. That is, expect the unexpected.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a tale about three escaped convicts who are racing against time to get to a treasure. On the way, they encounter all sorts of colourful characters and do all sorts of interesting things. It is loosely based on The Odyssey, but since I've never actually read The Odyssey it would be difficult for me to draw parallels.
Parodies of everyone from Robert Johnson to the Carter Family show up at some point. There are hillbilly rednecks, a political election, a blind prophet, religious fanatics, some hooded KKK members, and a bunch of pyromaniacs with a penchant for killing.
Somehow in this hodgepodge, a plot (and I use the term loosely) gets strung together. However, this movie isn't about the plot, nor is it about the acting, even despite George Clooney's golden globe award. Each time his accent slipped I questioned how well he deserved that one. But none of that was the point. The bottom line is, this movie is very, very funny.
Of course, being able to pick out some of the references helps. I admit that I probably missed most of them, since many were very obscure, but there was still enough humour in there to entertain almost anyone.
Just don't go into the movie expecting something typical, because O Brother, Where Art Thou? is anything but.
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