O' Brother, Where Art Thou?

I have always been a big fan of the Coen Brothers.

Huge fan. The first movie of theirs that I saw was Hudsucker Proxy. I know, I got in late. But After that, I saw them all. Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, and then Lebowski, Fargo...

This evening, December 22, 2000, at 7 p.m. my wife and I saw O' Brother, Where Art Thou?

Now, I should give you a little background on what I thought of the other Coen movies.

I think that Barton Fink is the most well produced film ever made. I don't think there is one thing wrong with that film, not one thing, from a production, writing, directing or acting standpoint. It's just beautiful.

Miller's Crossing is another brilliant movie. An incredibly smart script, great acting... the two films go hand in hand production wise. I have to say that Hudsucker is also brilliantly produced and well acted. It's not my favorite, but it is up there.

Blood Simple is just incredible. Their first film, I think if my first movie comes even close to being as successful as that one, well then I'll be super happy.

Fargo is a simple, beautiful movie. My first real introduction to William Macy and I must say, he's never been better.

Now, Lebowski I must say, the first time I saw it I hated the hell out of it. HATED it. I thought that the Coen Brothers were insane for making that movie (at the time). I can now say after having viewed it a number of times (and being a HUGE Jeff Bridges fan), it's got a special place in my heart.

Saying this, O' Brother will never have a special place in my heart. I hate to say it, but I have no idea what the Coen brothers were doing. I don't even think it was that well produced, to be honest (and that's one of the things they have going for them across the board).

The idea was... eh. I don't think it's one of those stories that new things, hidden things, will be popping up here and there, if you catch my drift.

The acting was... eh. I think George Clooney came off acting more like Johnny Depp in Ed Wood, then his own acting. John Turturro was ok, and the other guy... Tim Blake Nelson, he was good. But the rest of it... Michael Badalucco, Charles Durning, these were the same 'characters' I've seen these guys play in any number of films. Holly Hunter was nothing special, either, having only 5 or 6 minutes of actual screen time (it seemed).

The plot was... where? I personally thought the plot to be very wooden, with a few too many holes in it. I'm not going to give any details, I like people to make up their minds for themselves. But for me, being a HUGE Coen Brothers fan, this was not worth the price of the tickets, popcorn, Diet Coke, Twizzlers and Milk Duds (my wife loves those).

At a running time of only 106 minutes, it felt like the shortest Coen Brothers movie out there (but it isn't). I was, literally, checking my watch every ten minutes or so, to see how long the film had been on and when it might be over.

So, for the Oscar Race, this is one I know won't be getting anything decent. Might get costumes, might get music (there were one or two numbers in there that were nice), but won't get anything else... at least it doesn't deserve anything else.

Sigh.

J.P.