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Plot:
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 Simpl...( read more 
). 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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Recent Reviews
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MCT:September 25, 2008A peculiar but striking homage about an ordinary, mentally distant man Ed Crane, with a less than remarkable career as a barber and a wife (Frances McDormand) who he suspects of cheating with 'Big Dave' Brewster (James Gandolfini). Crane jumps at the opportunity to broaden his career path with an offer to join Creighton (Jon Polito) in initiating an at the time innovative dry-cleaning industry. To achieve the finances necessary he decides to blackmail Brewster into giving him $10,000 using his cheating ways as a means of obtaining it. The results are disastrous and a chain of events follow involving his own wife ebing convicted of murder and people rapidly disappearing left, right and centre in Crane's life. The characters and the actors involved in this well directed film are great to watch and deserves to be considered another Joel and Ethan Coen triumph.
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MCT:September 17, 2008Un capolavoro assoluto di scrittura cinematografica e regia. Bellissimo il discordo dell'avvocato sul principio di indeterminatezza di Heisenberg. Sulla paura di vivere nell'anonimato.
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MCT:September 14, 2008
A lot of people find this movie hard to get into. Not me I loved it immediately. One of my Favorite Coen films.
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MCT:August 26, 2008
Noir di grande stile. Non sono certo un estimatore del genere, ma il racconto in prima persona, i dialoghi ben strutturati e l'uomorismo nero che pervade il film, concorrono alla buona riuscita della pellicola.
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MCT:August 26, 2008it snags u in and makes u want to know what happens next... billy bob's narrative hypnotizes with its calm and steady rhythme.. the story does a loop and the end leaves u slack jaw.. but worth the watch on a lazy day on the couch.
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MCT:August 12, 2008
a little work of art. first of all brilliant acting from the whole cast even though it's not even needed when you've got a story as powerful as this one. second of all i was waiting ages hoping that one day i'd see a coen brothers film that lived up to the standards of fargo. this was just as good! forget the newer no country for old men. this is much much better
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MCT:August 10, 2008
There's not a second of this that didn't impress me. The Coens' writing is demonically good, Deakins is a master of light, Thornton keeps his hat on, well it's all just grand I say.
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MCT:July 24, 2008There is something about this film that just drew me in completely. It could have been the fantastic performances by everyone involved (especially Billy Bob Thorton), the beautiful cinematography, the interestingly complex story or the very apathetic but apropos character of Ed Crane. The Coen brothers really show why they are considered to be at the top of the modern directing landscape.
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MCT:July 22, 2008
This definitely LOOKS great and is very moody. The acting was spot-on, Billy Bob Thornton's face was just perfect for this kind of genre.
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MCT:July 8, 2008
so much style
such a good performance of all the Cast such a good artdesigning , shooting and editing
it a shame the story so lame -
MCT:June 28, 2008Well directed but boring. Notice how Scarlett Johansson plays the role of the tempter false innocent bitch once again (and here she was just 16)...
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MCT:June 25, 2008
Great to look at, this homage to film noir is definitely worth the time. Thornton does good as always.
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MCT:June 5, 2008
I love this style of movie and although the performances are good I was still slightly disappointed. I'd heard mixed reviews on it so I had to see what all the fuss was about. Billy Bob Thornton really was excellent. He was perfect for the character as he does apathetic very well. I was slightly disappointed that there wasn't more of Scarlett Johansson in it but that can't be helped. I love the overall look of the film noir genre and Joel Coen definatly pays tribute to the genre very well. I think it was the plot that I didn't really enjoy. Usually its about two plots coming together but here the viewer knew exactly what was going on which isn't really as fun because after the initial set up you could pretty much guess what was going to happen next. Despite its flaws it is still worth checking out for the excellent characterisation and the fine performance from Billy Bob Thornton.
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MCT:May 25, 2008
Slow, odd and morose neo noir, with a unusually quiet, restrained but remarkable performance by Billy Bob Thornton. Roger Deakins' cinematography, although too flashy for my taste (in the context of the story) is a undeniably strong point.
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MCT:May 19, 2008
An absolutely terrific Billy Bob Thronton and an unparalelled direction and script by the Coen Bros., 40's film-noirish style, result in a contemporary crime masterpiece, full of suspense and unforgettable scenes.
87/100 -
MCT:May 11, 2008I love the Coens, but I found this movie kinda boring -- I think I actually fell asleep...I'll try watching it again.
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MCT:May 5, 2008
"The Man Who Wasn't There" is a slick, satisfying, intriguing, gloriously shot film noir homage from the Brothers Coen. The cast is excellent throughout, the music haunting and Roger Deakins' brilliance showing vividly all two hours. I also enjoyed the throwback to the Coens' earlier film, "Blood Simple," with the spousal betrayal plot and the characters' natural dark humor shining via the wonderful, idiosyncratic dialogue. My only quibble with "The Man Who Wasn't There" is the uneven thematic and symbolic gestures in the movie. Some of the satire and observations about "modern man" didn't quite come through; and I don't think I fully understood what the hair and barbers represented. But then again, as "modern men," maybe we're not supposed to know too much about ourselves. Only the Coens.
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MCT:May 1, 2008
I should start by saying that I normally hate black and white films, they really annoy me. I think it's because colours really show emotions and give films more character, I just find it more interesting. But in this case I survived watching this whole film, and came to realise that the black and white made this movie more.. mysterious. It was probably the better choice than making this in colour, it gave me an idea of the film when it had only just started. It's unique, mysterious, strange, humorous and unlike any other film I have seen before.
It's definitely something strange from Billy Bob Thornton, it's nothing at all like any of his other films. Obviously it's not a comedy, though it does have a few jokes, so it's nothing like his new comedy movies. And even some of the drama ones I have seen before of his.. it was like another actor. That, by the way, isn't a bad thing. It's a great thing, I love the way he can go from films like Sling Blade, to this, to Bad Santa. He has a huge range of characters he can play so well, and they're all so different. In this movie Billy Bob is Ed Crane, very mysterious and somehow seemed to be the normal, boring kind of guy. We are shown important parts of his life before and after an incident that would change his whole life.
Apart from Billy Bob Thornton, this movie also had some great stars. Scarlett Johansson was great as her role of a young girl who Ed finds an important part of his life, and is determined to make sure her life isn't as much of a disaster as his. Tony Shalhoub was also quite good in this film, there wasn't much to his character but he mastered him and made the movie a lot more entertaining to watch.
This is definitely worth seeing if you are a Billy Bob Thornton fan, it's complex at times, but definitely a beautifully made film. The movie climax at the end was done exceptionally well and the feeling still stayed with me after the credits. "I don't know what waits for me, beyond the earth and sky. But I'm not afraid to go." -
MCT:April 21, 2008
Loved it! Scarlett Johansson's performance was terrible, and it all just got a little depressing and strange at the end, but I enjoyed it more than No Country.
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MCT:April 20, 2008
Ed Crane: Me, I don't talk much... I just cut the hair
A film done in the style of noir about a Barber, it's from the Coen Brothers and it stars Billy Bob Thorton, what's not to like.
The whole movie is played throughout with narration by Billy Bob, who talks and talks about life basically.
A blackmailing plot ensues, involving Frances McDormand as the barber's wife, and James Gandolfini as her boss. This prompts other events to turn up in the story, including the appearance of Tony Shalhoub as a hot shot lawyer.
Reidenschneider: You say he was being blackmailed, by who? You don't know. For having an affair, with who? You don't know. Did anyone else know about it? Probably not, you don't know.
Another subplot also emerges, that features Scarlett Johansson as a local girl with talent at the piano.
Ed Crane: Time slows down right before an accident, and I had time to think about things. I thought about what an undertaker had told me once - that your hair keeps growing, for a while anyway, after you die, and then it stops. I thought, "What keeps it growing? Is it like a plant in soil? What goes out of the soil? The soul? And when does the hair realize that it's gone?"
The movie looks great, capturing the time of the 1940s, shown in black and white. Other little Coenisms show up including the casting and of course the dialog, making this an entertaining noir about a simple man.
Ed Crane: He told them to look not at the facts, but at the meaning of the facts. Then he said the facts had no meaning. -
MCT:April 14, 2008
Since this is a Coens movie, you can only expect one outcome. That is for me to decalre it as a triumph and encourage you to go see it. Well, yes I will. Once again brothers Joel and Ethan, who share co-writing credits but a single direction credit for Joel, have delivered a finely crafted and stylish comic thriller.
A difficult plot to dissect without spoiling, it starts with Ed Crane (Thornton - "Sling Blade", "Bandits", "Primary Colours", "Armageddon"), a quiet chain-smoking barber describing a typical day in his uneventful life. As talkative as Crane is silent, his brother-in-law Frank (Badalucco - TVs "The Practice") shares hair-cutting duties in their family barbers business. Ed's passive nature sees him badgered into a dead-end marriage with Frank's sister Doris (McDormand - Oscar winner for "Fargo", "Almost Famous", "Primal Fear"). This leads to Doris having an affair with Ed's best friend, Big Dave (Gandolfini - TVs "The Sopranos"), something which Ed suspects, but decides to let go.
When quirky entrepreneur, Creighton Tolliver (Polito - "Stuart Little", "The Big Lebowski", "The Crow"), rambles on about a new business venture that he is seeking a $10,000 investment for, Ed sees it as an opportunity to take a little risk and step outside of his ordinary life. However, his methods in obtaining the money lead him into an unthinkable chain-reaction of events that end up destroying not only his life, but the lives of everyone around him.
The beauty about the Coen's complex writing is the ability it has to enable subtle actions lead to events that seemed inconceivable before they happened. In this respect, "The Man Who Wasn't There" bears a resemblance to the superb "Fargo", even if the style is far removed from the Oscar nominated movie. Filmed entirely in black-and-white, the craggy and withdrawn features of Thornton in the lead role are about as perfect a piece of casting as you could imagine. Thornton manages to deliver a host of reactions and personality characteristics through the bare minimum of expressions. Humorously compare this to the expressionless Harrison Ford who manages to look like a piece of cardboard in most performances.
Coen directs with a nonchalant lack of vigour although the story moves at a steady pace. Close-up shots of the main protagonists tell a story that might take a number of lines of dialogue in other circumstances, and the lack of urgency is to the film-makers credit.
It's not just writing and directing where the Coen's succeed consistently, it is also their ability to cast suitably rather than hire names that will put bums on seats. Micahel Badalucco is hilarious as big-kid, Frank, while Polito excels as the money-hungry entrepreneur. Tony Shalhoub ("Spy Kids", "Galaxy Quest", "A Civil Action", "Primary Colours") steals numerous scenes as heartless, fast-talking lawyer Freddy Riedenschneider and the amusing good-cop/good-cop double act of Christopher Kriesa and Brian Haley is notable for the few scenes they pop into.
This movie will have you thinking for days. It is a triumph, and you should go see it. But I told you that a good few paragraphs ago. -
MCT:April 5, 2008
One of Coen Brother's finest achievements, The Man Who Wasn't There is a dark, brooding flick but not without some truly hilarious moments also the (b/w) cinematography was one of the finest in my book, truly spectacular. The role of Ed Crane seemed tailor made for Billy Bob Thornton who gave one hell of a performance. This one shouldn't be missed.
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MCT:March 29, 2008This film is unbelievably boring. The story line is so disjointed that one falls asleep over it. The fact that Tony Shalhoub is the defence lawyer doesn't rescue the film either. The film was shot in black and white to help the dull story line but it dragged it only further into the muddy waters. A real 'el cheapo' made on the tip of a shoe string. A complete waste of time.
Hermann.
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