The Man Who Wasn't There
starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
directed by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
directed by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
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Product Description:
A DISSATISFIED BARBER IN THE 1940S DECIDES TO BLACKMAIL HIS WIFE'S LOVER IN ORDER TO GET STARTUP CAPITAL FOR A NEW DRY CLEANING BUSINESS. THE SCHEME BEGINS TO UNRAVEL AND, IN THE END, EVERYONE GETS WHAT'S COMING TO THEM.
Amazon.com:
For all of its late-1940s cold war paranoia, pulp fiction dialogue, and frenzied greed, Joel and Ethan Coen's The Man Who Wasn't There is their most cool and collected film since Blood Simple. An unassuming barber with a scheming wife (Frances McDormand) and a serious smoking habit, Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) is an onlooker to his own life, a ghostly presence set against a silver-toned film noir backdrop. Only when he decides to alter his fate by blackmailing his wife's lover (James Gandolfini) in order to invest with a traveling salesman (Jon Polito) touting the wave of the future--dry cleaning--do we begin to hear the full extent of Ed's understated, existential lament. As his lawyer (Tony Shalhoub) says in Ed's defense at his eventual trial for murder, "He is modern man." Thornton's deadpan eloquence and cinematographer Roger Deakins's precision lighting offer the perfect counterbalance to the requisite one-liners, plot twists, and false endings that have come to characterize recent Coen brothers films. Almost in spite of the obsessive cultural references (flying saucers, Nabokov's Lolita, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle), Ed Crane steps neatly from the fray as one of cinema's most memorably disenchanted characters. --Fionn Meade
A DISSATISFIED BARBER IN THE 1940S DECIDES TO BLACKMAIL HIS WIFE'S LOVER IN ORDER TO GET STARTUP CAPITAL FOR A NEW DRY CLEANING BUSINESS. THE SCHEME BEGINS TO UNRAVEL AND, IN THE END, EVERYONE GETS WHAT'S COMING TO THEM.
Amazon.com:
For all of its late-1940s cold war paranoia, pulp fiction dialogue, and frenzied greed, Joel and Ethan Coen's The Man Who Wasn't There is their most cool and collected film since Blood Simple. An unassuming barber with a scheming wife (Frances McDormand) and a serious smoking habit, Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) is an onlooker to his own life, a ghostly presence set against a silver-toned film noir backdrop. Only when he decides to alter his fate by blackmailing his wife's lover (James Gandolfini) in order to invest with a traveling salesman (Jon Polito) touting the wave of the future--dry cleaning--do we begin to hear the full extent of Ed's understated, existential lament. As his lawyer (Tony Shalhoub) says in Ed's defense at his eventual trial for murder, "He is modern man." Thornton's deadpan eloquence and cinematographer Roger Deakins's precision lighting offer the perfect counterbalance to the requisite one-liners, plot twists, and false endings that have come to characterize recent Coen brothers films. Almost in spite of the obsessive cultural references (flying saucers, Nabokov's Lolita, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle), Ed Crane steps neatly from the fray as one of cinema's most memorably disenchanted characters. --Fionn Meade
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Every Word of this Fiction is True
So it was my pick for movie night, and my last selection, the neo-noir The Last Seduction had been a bust with my friend [who didn't find the main character funny, a requirement for enjoyment], and for some reason I found myself renting this, another neo-noir. I had seen this in the theater and liked it, and upon re-viewing, had the happy experience of discovering that it's even better than I remembered.
We open with these nice 3-D titles over a B&W image of a barber pole--the entire ... Read More
Rating: 
- Good cast and cinematography but:
In the Special Presentations, the Coen Brothers refer to The Big Sleep and Double Indemnity.I haven't seen all of their films, but this doesn't measure up to Raymond Chandler.Chandler's stories are more fantasy and fun.This one should be on the Chill Horror channel.
It's also a remake of Raising Arizona without the fun part.Not repeating yourself in art is difficult; but with the Coen's status, I guess they can do it if they want.
Based on the reviews, apparently there are ... Read More
Rating: 
- The Movie That Wasn't There
While this film is sort of interesting, and has an art house cinematic visual appeal, it lacks the usual compelling plot progression that makes most Coen brothers' films so much fun. Thronton lives up (down?) to the title of his role, and James Gandolfini, Tony Shalhoub, and Jon Polito all briefly shine in their respective parts, but the apathy of Billy Bob's character seems to infect the whole process. Can't recommend it.
Rating: - NOIRVILLE
If the title of this 2001 Coen Brothers effort strikes you as vaguely familiar (echoing as it does titles like THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH,THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE or even, perhaps, THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS),you'll find much else in the film that hearkens back to earlier eras, most particularly to the film noir works of the `40s and `50s. The question--as with other efforts by the Brothers--is to what extent is this movie a kind of post-moderntribute or "valentine" to an earlier genre and ... Read More
Rating: - A 40's movie reborn?
This movie is a tribute to Hollywood of the 40's with Billy Bob Thornton doing a good cigarette smoking Bogart imitation.
This movie is reality through a strange surreal lens in which nothing goes as you think it might or should. Even the teen age girl behaves beyond the usual parameters? The acting is great and the plot is dead and I mean, dead, on.By the end you think enough already, put him out of his misery!
- Every Word of this Fiction is TrueSo it was my pick for movie night, and my last selection, the neo-noir The Last Seduction had been a bust with my friend [who didn't find the main character funny, a requirement for enjoyment], and for some reason I found myself renting this, another neo-noir. I had seen this in the theater and liked it, and upon re-viewing, had the happy experience of discovering that it's even better than I remembered.
We open with these nice 3-D titles over a B&W image of a barber pole--the entire ... Read More
- Good cast and cinematography but:In the Special Presentations, the Coen Brothers refer to The Big Sleep and Double Indemnity.I haven't seen all of their films, but this doesn't measure up to Raymond Chandler.Chandler's stories are more fantasy and fun.This one should be on the Chill Horror channel.
It's also a remake of Raising Arizona without the fun part.Not repeating yourself in art is difficult; but with the Coen's status, I guess they can do it if they want.
Based on the reviews, apparently there are ... Read More
- The Movie That Wasn't ThereWhile this film is sort of interesting, and has an art house cinematic visual appeal, it lacks the usual compelling plot progression that makes most Coen brothers' films so much fun. Thronton lives up (down?) to the title of his role, and James Gandolfini, Tony Shalhoub, and Jon Polito all briefly shine in their respective parts, but the apathy of Billy Bob's character seems to infect the whole process. Can't recommend it.
- NOIRVILLEIf the title of this 2001 Coen Brothers effort strikes you as vaguely familiar (echoing as it does titles like THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH,THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE or even, perhaps, THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS),you'll find much else in the film that hearkens back to earlier eras, most particularly to the film noir works of the `40s and `50s. The question--as with other efforts by the Brothers--is to what extent is this movie a kind of post-moderntribute or "valentine" to an earlier genre and ... Read More
- A 40's movie reborn?This movie is a tribute to Hollywood of the 40's with Billy Bob Thornton doing a good cigarette smoking Bogart imitation.
This movie is reality through a strange surreal lens in which nothing goes as you think it might or should. Even the teen age girl behaves beyond the usual parameters? The acting is great and the plot is dead and I mean, dead, on.By the end you think enough already, put him out of his misery!
