Rating: R
Genre:
Comedy Drama
Release Date: 10/01/2002
SubTitles: French/Espanol
Dubbed: English/French
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 116 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: Universal Studios
Set in a sleepy Northern California town in the 1940s,
Joel Coen and
Ethan Coen's
The Man Who Wasn't There stars
Billy Bob Thornton as
Ed Crane, a humble barber who suspects his hard-hearted and hard-drinking wife
Doris (
Frances McDormand) of having an affair with her boss (
James Gandolfini). When a jocular stranger (
Jon Polito) breezes into town hinting at the fortune to be made investing in an outlandish-sounding new invention called dry cleaning,
Ed hatches a blackmail scheme he hopes will make him rich and get him some revenge at the same time. His plan goes horribly awry when he accidentally commits a murder for which
Doris ends up being blamed, landing her in the slammer and
Ed at the mercy of blowhard big-city lawyer
Freddy Riedenschneider (
Tony Shalhoub). Filmed in black-and-white by three-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer
Roger Deakins,
The Man Who Wasn't There was inspired by the seedy crime novels of
James M. Cain, putting a distinctly Coen brothers' spin on the film noir tradition. Though spiked with their characteristic humor, its moody atmosphere hearkens back to the darker moments of
Blood Simple and
Fargo -- a marked departure from the high-spirited slapstick of
O Brother Where Art Thou.
~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
;)
