Wonderful character development!

Lack of good storyline.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The Man Who Wasn't There2 Out Of 5The Man Who Wasn't There is a plot driven feature that focuses a baffling mind of a dissatisfying middle aged man. The convoluted and over thought out monologues imbibes the essence from the soul of the feature and turns it into a repetitive slog which seems on loop for around 2 hours. It is short on technical aspects like background score, costume design, sound department, production design and editing although the cinematography; like the first thing the protagonist notes about a person is the hair for he is a barber, and the sound effects are amazing. The screenplay by the Coen brothers, isn't smart or ground breaking as it may seem for the characters are chewed off way too much for the audience to savor it and addition to that, the scrutiny isn't as convoluted as they think, it's just merely spread out into scattered bits and pieces which despite of being bound well enough, barely moves the muscle in the bigger picture. Joel Coen; the director, seems distracted and blurred out of the vision that he has aspired to set as it never attains a singularity on the terms and laws residing in his self-created bubble. The Man Who Wasn't There actually seems like the makers that weren't there for the audience as the feel disconnected throughout the course of it.

Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) is a barber in a small California town circa 1948. A quiet man who rarely speaks more than a few sentences on any topic, he has been married to Doris (Frances McDormand) for many years. Doris is more sociable and drags Ed to parties and dinners. She is a bookkeeper for Big Mike (James Gandolfini), a department store bigwig by marriage. Somehow, Ed gets news that Doris is cheating on him with Big Mike. Therefore, he concocts a scheme to blackmail the Big Man with a secret letter. Ed wants to invest money with an up and coming businessman and maybe escape his routine. However, Mike finds out and invites Ed to his office on another pretext. In the office, Big M tries to kill Ed who fights back with a handy letter opener. In a horrifying scene, Mike dies slowly in a gurgle of blood. Ed thinks his tracks are concealed. But, soon, DORIS is arrested for Mike's murder, when it is discovered she has embezzled money from the accounts. Will Ed let Doris take the rap for him? Into this deadly mix comes a piano playing Lolita (Scarlett Johanssen) who takes Ed's attention off the crisis in his life. In this labyrinth movie, there are more twists and turns ahead! Here is another winner from the national treasure of the Coen Brothers. Shot in black and white, it is a quietly noir movie of great power, in words and concepts. Thornton delivers a performance of praise while all of the others, including Gandolfini, do likewise. Naturally, the art direction and costumes bring the forties to life with gusto. So, don't say there isn't anything to do this evening when you can get your mitts on this flick!

Set in the late 1940's, low key barber Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thorton) inadvertently blackmails his wife's boss, which leads to him killing him to cover it up. This triggers a complicated police involvement with Ed, as well as a psychological breakdown, all while he narrates the events in his mind.Billy Bob Thorton is not only greatly cast, but he is top notch in this film, you feel what he feels, and what he's going through not just through the narration, but through his facial expressions. The Coens captured the psychological feeling through the excellent cinematography, eerie music, and classy set pieces. The events in the film are fairly simple and play out like a pretty standard neo- noir drama, but his narration is what makes it so deep and unforgettable, and what makes it stand out. This is a rare instance where it isn't style over substance, both are very strong in this film. We get the classy black and white cinematography, along with some strong character reading.I had a couple issues. Like I said, it is a standard neo noir film, and the narration kind of over escalates the film itself, and doesn't play out on its own at any point. It also takes a bit of time to set up the plot, and even though it has great payoff, it's still rough to get through. Overall, it's a super solid Coen film that stands out as one of their more psychological films, as well as one of their most stylistic.

Another excellent film in the canon of the brothers Coen. The only film of theirs I wasn't terribly fond of was "Inside Llewyn Davis," though I have not seen all of their work. Good understated performance by Billy Bob Thornton as the central character. Great casting all around (the late James Gandolfini comes to mind). Terrific script with pleasing surprises. This is not, in my opinion, a Coen bros. masterpiece; however, it is clearly the work of masters of movie-making in peak form. Thornton's nonentity character--never without a cigarette--is sad, tragically human, memorable. He is the kind of guy who just lets life happen around him. This movie is basically as good as neo-noir gets. Black and white was a great, an important, choice. Of those I've seen the only Coen brothers films that were made after this I thought were superior are "A Serious Man" and "No Country for Old Men." I expect this film will continue to age well.