I just can't get enough of that Coen brothers surreal movie gold. The Man Who Wasn't There is a perfectly crafted neo-noir crime drama about a man, Ed Crane, a barber who's life is a mish-mash of betrayals and other such awful situations. Remaining stoic and frank throughout, Ed narrates the story, providing contrast with his seemingly emotionless character on screen.
When Ed tries to make money by backing the new business of dry-cleaning he subsequently finds out about problems his "friend," played by the brilliant James Gandolfini, has encounted, and the film follows Ed's story as he twists and turns, covering up others and his own mistakes eventually attempting to find retribution by helping a young piano playing girl. Strange when written out like this, it just works. Ed is likeable despite his seeming lack of emotion and whilst others try to find justice or cover up events, he remains the same throughout the entire film, almost as if he wasn't there. He just continues to be a barber. It's clever.
The film is shot, as noir films are, in black and white, giving the coens a brilliant opportunity to show of their superb visual eyes. And by God they do! Every shot is carefully lit, there are creeping, waving shadows, portions of screen filled with entire darkness, brilliant contrasts, with slow-motion, mid shots to emotion close ones to sweeping wides shots where the locations engulf the characters.
I just loved it, and I can't write about it in a way that does it justice. The acting is brilliant, especially from the lead Billy Bob Thornton. Gandolifni, aka Tony Soprano, performs brilliantly and Tony Shalhoub returns from (previously "reviewed") Barton Fink to play the lawyer whoose brilliant monologues really did get me thinking. Frances McDormand has also recently become my favourite actress. Her performance in both this, Fargo, and Burn After Reading are both funny but she really gets across the different characters and is great at showing emotion without speaking.
Overall, I just love it. I really, really like films like this. They're just so arty, so much thought, so much detail, interesting characters, believable settings, quirky but different plots. Great!
Overall
A brilliantly well done noir film with a great story and a leading character that one can really relate to. Attention to techincal detail in lighting and camera make The Man Who Wasn't There not only an interesting story, but great to look at as well.
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