The Man Who Wasn't There

[Rod Hagen]

I'm surprised nobody's seen "Donnie Darco" yet.

 

Call me a nerd-ass, but in college the Heisenberg (spelling) Uncertainty Principle was one of my favorite notions in physics. Probably because it was only one of a few that I actually 'got'. Maybe that is why I gushed over the London performance of "Copenhagen".

 

Francis McDormant's attorney in "The Man Who Wasn't There" planned to call upon this principle in her defense suggesting that the more you look (at her) the less you can really know. The same can be said of Billy Bob Thorton's character. A simple barber who never does much more than grunt seems at first to be a man of no consequence. And perhaps if certain events hadn't taken place he would have lived and died as a man "who wasn't there". But infidelity, blackmail, and a moment of violence reveal him to be both formidable and capable of great compassion. But to look at him you'd never know.

 

The Cohen brother's quirky "Hudsucker Proxy" played upon the innocence of a bygone era in a sleek black and white city built in "Fountainhead" proportions. "The Man", also in black and white, does something similar, but this city feels more like "Miracle on 34th Street" than Gotham, right down to a spoof on Macy's called Nierdlings. One can't help but notice that everybody in this film smokes, a lot. And the amount of billowing smoke, whether from cigars or cigarettes, always seems greatly disproportionate. That's because it is, of course. Occasionally, the characters are in between smokes, and so the Brothers then use the shadows of trees and the poor quality of department store lighting to mask the actors; always adding to the sense that none of these people are really "there". It's the topnotch acting that hints at the truth.

 

This is a beautifully subtle film. Moviegoers who rely on the Cohen's to shock a community with unexpected violence (Blood Simple) and gore (remember the guy in the 'wood chipper' in the film named after my home: FARGO?) will only be slightly disappointed. "The Man Who Wasn't There" is loftier, some will say "slower". It is true that the pace kind of lags, but with cinematography and acting this strong, I say "let it last".

[Guest WetDream]

What a terrific film, the best one to come out of Hollywood in months...elegantly written, performed, directed and photographed. It is a riff on all of those 40s and 50s films noir. A large part of the fun is getting the references. I am sure that the Coen's picked the local (supposedly Santa Rosa but actually Pasadena) because that was the setting for Hitchcock's look at creepiness in small town life in "Shadow of a Doubt." And the wedding scene uses the same music as "The Godfather." Well, go to see it and find them yourselves.

 

P.S. The small parts are all gems. There was a hilarious gay guy, but my favorite was the father of the pianist.