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Top Critics (32)
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DVD (26)
Affectlessness is not a quality much prized in movie protagonists, but Billy Bob Thornton, that splendid actor, does it perfectly as Ed Crane.
The film holds the interest, to be sure, but more due to the sure sense of craft and precise effect that one expects from the Coens than from genuine involvement in the story.
Joel and Ethan Coen stay true to their bent for dense heroes and neonoir, and to their unshakable conviction that life usually turns out to be splendidly horrific.
Despite the movie's humor and sense of irony, it takes on a sense of somberness as it progresses.
A paradoxical film even by the Coen brothers' standards: a painstakingly crafted throwaway.
The Man Who Wasn't There denatures pulp, and although I know this was the Coens' intention, it's not a particularly gratifying one. Their movie isn't there, either.
This stylized black and white noir by the Joel and Ethan Coen is meticulously mounted but too emotionally detached and only sporadically engaging.
Some mature themes--best for older teens.
Few outside of Coen cliques paid this nihilistic neo-noir much attention. Perhaps that's its wryest, slyest punchline: To watch Ed Crane is to largely forget him and, upon returning to him, revisit the pleasure of meeting him for the first time.
As good a film as I've seen this year.
Thornton does wonders within the tabula rasa of words and gestures he's limited to.
Mr. Shaloub injects some much needed energy into the film which otherwise feels long at two hours.
Slowly paced for a thriller and with a hero many will find off-putting, this is nevertheless a gripping, unusual and challenging work from the most consistently brilliant filmmakers of the last decade.
In this the Coens' sly script is helped no end by Billy Bob Thornton's supremely eloquent performance as the taciturn tonsor, lent terrific support from Frances McDormand as the wife.
It's perfectly, elegantly reticent about its subject matter, as suits both the theme and the tradition of film noir (a type of filmmaking that thrives on unstated motives).
You've heard of a 'vacant stare'; now you know what it's like for the person staring.
Thornton's ultra low key performance is a plus, as is the effectively moody, black and white cinematography.
Once again, Ethan and Joel Coen have twisted a film genre into something new.
Joel and Ethan Coen have created an excellent film that intelligent audiences should really appreciate.
A perfectly executed illustration of what is not, quite, great about the Coen brothers, which is a kind of grandstanding, and another kind of weirdly alienating insincerity.
Makes people wish they could still light up in cinemas. It might not be the Coens at their best, but they still blow smoke in the faces of all the competition.
The Coen Brothers continue to trick up the past, skewing film noir and the late '40s through their deadpan sensibility.
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