The Man Who Wasn't There

Review by By Clint Morris

Year-by-year, film-through-film, directors constantly compete in a skirmish as to who can come up with the most bravura looking of films. Some, like George Lucas, invest heavily in state of the art special effects. Others, like Quentin Tarantino, tinker with everyday storylines and turn them on their head via obscure plotting. Joel and Ethan Coen have more unthought of methods in mind when creating their films.

As if they have borrowed a ride in the time-travelling "Back to the Future" Delorean, the Coen's have made a film that looks so authentically vintage through the use of black and white; yet palpably ridden with the genius of a modern-day screenplay. The result is diamond-sharp and irresistible.

Looking ever so the part, Billy Bob Thornton plays the title role that of Ed Crane, a soft-spoken, small town barber who relies more on his thought passage than his vocal chords. Trapped in a sad existence with a daily schedule so routine - cut hair, cut hair, cut hair, shave wives legs - Crane longs for a slightly more exciting lifestyle.

Enter Creighton Tolliver (Polito), he's requesting a barber's services to trim his toupee, but by the end of his day - he'll have snagged Ed into a appetizing business proposition - to become his silent partner in a innovative, trendsetting string of dry-cleaning emporiums. Ultimately this is the financial decision that will rework the lives of Ed, his wife (McDormand) and her lover (Gandolfini) by means of a series of unheard blackmail, murder, embezzlement, mad love, culpable secrets, disappearance, humiliation and arrest and a foreseeable court trial where Sacramento's slickest lawyer, Freddy Riedenschneider (Tony Shalhoub) must convince a court room that a Barber isn't capable of coming up with anything dire.

This is the first movie the Coen brothers have done in this post-expressionist visual style: black and white, cavernous shadows, ominous angles. Cinematographer Roger Deakins has painted the film in a splashing of style, personality and striking texture. Without the spot-on screenplay though, Deakin's spongy technicolor stock could have been adding more wood to a sizzling fire.

Like all of the Coen brother's films, The Man Who Wasn't There is definitely peculiar. At the same too it's also darkly funny - not unlike Fargo - and such seasoned performers play the characters to perfection. Thornton underplays the role, sometimes coming across as a vintage movie star himself - maybe Bogart? - complete with continuously lit cigarette and brooding demeanour.

McDormand also proves herself one of the leading actresses of her generation through the very dissimilar role of Ed's repressed housewife turned murder suspect. In a role cities away from his "Sopranos" part, James Gandolfini is imposing in his integral - but brief - role of Big Dave Brewster. The performances are unimprovable.

Young Scarlett Johanson - of the Horse Whisperer fame - is duly sublime as a young music student whom Ed takes a shine to, Joe Polito is astoundingly sleazy and mud-dirty as the unscrupulous shady salesman and Michael Badalucco (The Practice) is rather hilarious in the plum role of Ed's brother-in-law and barber shop co-worker.

The Coen brother's movies - "Blood Simple", "Fargo", "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" - have all been so singular in terms of the way the movie is handled and the type of films they are. The Man Who Wasn't There probably shares the epoch and comical style qualities of their last movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou, but this one swaps looniness for dashings of dense but witty humour, although their wackiness shines thru in a brief bit about visitors from another planet.

The Man Who Wasn't There won't be everyone's piece of pie - it's quite an acquired watch, but for those whose enjoy the genre, it's well baked, golden and ready to endure.

4 out of 5

The Man who Wasn't There
Australian release: Commences December 26th across Australia
Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, James Gandolfini, Tony Shalhoub, Michael Badalucco, Joe Polito.
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen.
Website: Click here

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