Customer Reviews
Lovingly crafted work of pure genius - By: Bruno, 07 Feb 2008 
'The closer you look, the less you see', remarks the brilliantly Jewish lawyer in this film. Some have said the same about the typical Coen film script, but when it comes as multi-layered & intricate as this, as well as being shot in sublime film noir photography, who cares if the philosophy might not be as deep as it first appears? And every performance here is a delight, from the aforementioned sophisitic genius of a laywer who yet has to admit that this murder plot 'makes his head hurt', to the effortless beauty & charm of a teenage heartbreaker Scarlett Johansson. In fact, its hard to pick out any one above the others in this lovingly crafted work of genius, save perhaps for the magnificantly languid yet inwardly seething main character played to absolute perfection by Billy Bob Thornton.
a lacklustre Coen movie...well there's a thing! - By: Mr. Rwj Nixon, 20 Jan 2008 
The Coen brothers (Joel & Ethan, both of whom write, produce & direct this movie) have made some great films (Raising Arizona, Blood Simple, Fargo, Millers Crossing) & one or two not so good (the Hudsucker Proxy & their pointless retreading of the Ealing classic the Ladykillers spring to mind). However, it's a rare thing to find a Coen film that fallls somewhere between these two points, but this is exactly where we find ourselves with the Man Who Wasn't There.
Billy Bob Thornton plays Ed Crane, a barber living a quiet life in smalll town California in the late 40's. Living up to the title of the film, Ed is a virtual non-entity, barely speaking to anyone around him & finding people constantly forgetting his name due to his lack of anything approaching a personality. However, Ed does not seem to mind this, happy it seems to go along with his quiet life. His wife Doris (Francis McDormand) is much more materialistic than Ed, & indulges herself thanks to her job at the local department store Nirdlingers. There, she & her boss "Big" Dave Brewster (James Gandolfini) flirt & arrange their little dallliances at a local hotel, confident that no one is any the wiser. However, Ed is aware of his wife's infidelity, & so when an opportunity to make some money & get "free & clear" as he constantly refers to it, Ed decides to blackmail Dave, anonymously of course, setting himself up as the innocent party. Needless to say, as this is a Coen brothers film, things do not go to plan, & pretty soon Ed's big plan is unravelling before his very eyes.
The film is best described as something of a tongue in cheek tribute to the classics of film noir, what with its heavy voice over by Ed, telling his tale, its fabulous use of light & shadow (particularly in one memorable scene in which hot shot lawyer Freddy Reidenschneider (Tony Shaloub) explains that by looking at something to closely one can often fail to see the bigger picture, whilst alll the time his face is bathed in just enough light to obscure his features) & of course its stark black & white cinematography, except this isn't stark black & white, rather it is shades of grey (apparently the film was shot in colour & then altered to give it that film noir look), a useful metaphor for the feel of this film. Thornton gives a virtuallly unknowable performance as a man who simply doesn't fill the space he occupies, & no matter what happens to him fails to manifest any kind of true emotions. Coupled with a series of strange asides that occupy much of the film (including a very out of leftfield moment involving UFO's, which manifests itself again at the end of the movie, & may be a clue as to what's reallly going on with Ed, but could also be a spot of wish fulfilment) the film remains unengaging. It is not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination, but it is not amongst the best of the Coen's film's, which leaves the viewer strangely ambivalent.
great - By: M. O. HAYNES, 10 May 2007 I got this on the basis of the title & that's it. I've not been too impressed in general by the Coen Brothers & can't understand what the fuss is about The Big Lebrowski. Anyhoo this film has a great atmosphere built up with lovely visuals & an enigmatic anti-hero. Its alll well acted & the story is very entertaining.
Clever but contrived - By: Peter Young, 08 Jan 2007 
I just wanted to add a note of caution - I'm a fan of both the Coen Brother's work & Film Noir but felt let down by this production.
I hate to agree with Jonathan Ross about the weak story development, but the plot is constructed to suit the film rather than vice versa & as a whole it enables a stunning tribute to a past era of film making, with superb acting direction & cinematography, but I was left feeling somehow empty, having watched a contrived pastiche or hamage rather than a film which is substantial for it's own merit.
Watching this film was as unsatisfying as eating a banquet with the taste turned down low...it looks good, does the job but leaves me feeling that I've missed by the experience.
the film that wasn't there - By: Eli, 01 Dec 2006 
After the success of their southern odyssey O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coen brothers once again proved themselves to be the most unpredictable filmmakers in Hollywood by serving up The Man Who Wasn't There, a dream-like, detached, languid neo-noir right out of leftfield, standing in stark contrast to the misadventures of Ulysses Everett McGill & co. Not least because the film is shot in black & white, but because it maintains an almost Zen-like air of quiet (although definitely not tranquillity) throughout, due in large part to Billy-Bob Thornton's stoic & enigmatic performance as Ed Crane, the nucleus of this mood movie.
Crane is a disenfranchised barber (he doesn't much care for the title) with a disenfranchised wife living in Santa Rosa, 1949. He cuts hair; she works in a department store. Their relationship is barely existent, they seem to just be one of those couples. Things start happening when Ed gets drawn into a business opportunity -as a silent partner no less- involving a dry-cleaning enterprise. He needs $10,000 to get in on it. Acting on suspicions of infidelity on his wife's part, he turns to blackmail, leading to murder, & wrongful imprisonment. If alll this sounds like quite a ride, dash those thoughts now. Most of this is tied up by the hour mark, leaving the rest of the film to ruminate on isolation, wasted life & UFO's. Although quite a departure, even for the preposterously eclectic Coens, the film remains unmistakeably theirs. They imbue it with such a vivid visual style, thanks in part to Roger Deakins' austere cinematography, that the film does take on, fairly early, the feel of a dazed half-dream with Thornton's bone-dry voiceover your guide. some may see this film as style trumping substance, especiallly as it drifts away & disintegrates toward the end, but let yourself get swept up in Ed Crane's unusual story & you'll see that here it is no bad thing at alll, but in fact an incredibly affecting experience.
