The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

So I just watched The man who wasn't there, a noir movie from the Coens brothers, which won them the 2001 Cannes for best director (tied with David Lynch's Muholland Drive). And oh boy, I love and hate this movie at the same time.The movie can break out into first half and the second half. While the first half setups the plot and introducing characters, the second half is much faster and hits me with lots of thoughts.The movie starts out with the life of Ed Crane, a barber in 1949 America. Leading a sad boring life, Ed doesn't seem to feel or react to anything in his life. He didn't married out of love, and his wife doesn't care about him, even though she may say she does. He can tell she's having an affair with her boss/his friend Big Dave. One day he met a pansy who lured him into investing in dry-cleaning business. At once glance anyone can see this is a scam or it will fail, but Ed buys it. Probably he wanted a chance to escape his boring barber life. So he blackmailed Big Dave the affair to give the pansy the money. This was later found out by Big Dave. Ed was called to this shop by Big Dave to "solve" this problem, but ended up killing him in a self-defense act. This is the first half of the movie. My main thought until this point, especially after Ed and his wife went to a party to meet people they don't like, is that adult life is like a box, you can't escape and do what you want all the time. Things speed up in the second half of the movie. As the plot moves forward, my head was filled with thoughts about life. The movie is in black and while, and uses some Beethoven's best sonatas, setting its tone into sadness, I half feel sorry but half not for Ed, or what he's going through. This movie with all these "random" things happen, reminds me of another Coens' movie "A serious man". While its philosophy is: life has no meaning, nothing we do ever matter. Not until the middle of the movie, i realised this is a tragic- comedy. I didn't laughed at all about what happen (except sometimes the joke was too obvious),I just feel sad as things keep happening throughout the movie. *This part contains spoilers for the ending* Slowly he lost everything, his wife, his money, his store, and he lived like a ghost. There was this scene right after the accident. It was about Ed and his wife having a normal life, I viewed it as Ed's best moment of his life. At the end, he got arrested for murder, not for Big Dave but for the pansy Big Dave found out and killed. I think he accepted it like a punishment to himself for killing Big Dave. He got the chair. After all the sadness, I think this is the happy ending we got. Ed, like me, didn't understand how all this happened. Sure we know it steps by steps, but we couldn't see any pattern. Maybe he truly have no place in this world. He's *The man who wasn't there*, he's good as dead.

Movie in black and white with a story with different twists which could be out of a Hitchcock-movie. But My God, what is this a slow movie and I had to do my best not to fall asleep. The acting is nice but the voice-over contributes to the slowness and sleep-inducing atmosphere. Also there are some unclear flash-backs... It is all about a barber who wants to participate in a dry-cleaning deal and although his first hunch is that it is a swindle he gets the necessary 10000usd by blackmailing his wife's boss. But it stays unclear why he does not trust his instinct.... What also is a mystery to me is that his fingerprints are on the knife which he used to kill his wife's boss accidentally but the cops do nothing with that and arrest his wife because she helped her boss to falsify the figures in the books. But the biggest problem with this movie is that it lacks pace and should have been in color as I really do not see that this black & white does anything good for the movie. If you can watch this movie for free and have nothing else to do that watch it, otherwise do not waste time and/or money on it.

It's always a pleasure to watch a beautifully crafted neo noir thriller. And what adds greater to the pleasure is the fact that in spite having a radical approach, the movie stays true to its plot. The same happens with Director Joel Coen's latest. The story mainly deals with a succinct barber who is disappointed with his life and gets entangled in a web of murders and misfortunes which seem to be the part of something much bigger. Billy Bob Thornton is refreshingly addictive as Ed Crane, the laconic antihero supported with a petite but powerful performance from James Gandolfini.Special mention goes to Roger Deakins who does a tremendous job with the camera. He gives a certain charismatic aura to the monochrome effect with brilliant use of light. That being said, the movie could have been a little stronger towards the end.What started out as a nail biting thriller starts veering towards the emotional.The ending is a one to cherish. Taking away the concept of a happy ending, the film delivers the message it was intended to- "Karma always strikes back. Sometimes in a really creepy way!"Watch it!

The Man Who Wasn't There (2001): Dir: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen / Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, James Gandolfini, Tony Shalhoub, Scarlett Johansson: Film about accepting what happens yet drifting into a state of mind where we feel imperishable. Billy Bob Thornton plays a barber who suspects his wife of an affair with her boss. When a travelling salesman passes through he devises a blackmail scheme that goes wrong resulting in his wife going to prison for a murder she did not commit. Directors Joel and Ethan Coen reflect upon film noir shooting it in black and white, and apply the same wit they stylized in Blood Simple and The Big Lebowski. Thornton is excellent as a man who lives life without expecting much change. His fate isn't exactly uplifting but his torn conscience and barber's eye for hair make for an interesting performance. Frances McDormand plays his wife caught in adultery and pays double the consequence. Tony Shalhoub is hilarious as a lawyer who doesn't believe Thornton when he confesses, and becomes too expensive to hire again. James Gandolfini is featured as McDormand's boss whose fate matches his consequence and his broken trust. Scarlett Johansson has a quiet role as a young piano player whom Thornton admires. It regards the mind as Thornton spaces himself from reality, responsibility and eventually consequence. Score: 8 / 10