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The man who wasn't there

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Movie propaganda

Set in the late 1940s and something of the twilight zone, elevated and transfigured by the Coen's insight into the strangeness of ordinary existence.

Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) goes about the business of cutting hair with a stoic resignation. He's stuck in a rut and has no clue how to get out. Enter Creighton Tolliver (Jon Polito), a chatty new customer with a bad rug. He sees the future and it's called dry cleaning and all he needs is a willing investor. When Crane discovers that his bookkeeper wife, Doris (Frances McDormand) is having an affair with Big Dave (James Gandolfini), her boss at Nirdlinger's department store, the gears of change start turning.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film drama Coen brothers barber hair cutting salon affair adultery 1940s

Persons of interest

Billy Bob Thornton .... Ed Crane
Frances McDormand .... Doris Crane
James Gandolfini .... Big Dave
Jon Polito .... Creighton Tolliver
Michael Badalucco .... Frank Raffo
Katherine Borowitz .... Ann Brewster
Peter Schrum .... William Von Svenson
Adam Alexi-Malle .... Jacques Carcanogues
Ted Raimi .... Nickolai Boven
Ethan Coen .... Screenwriter
Joel Coen .... Screenwriter
Joel Coen .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Awards and film festivals:

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) 2002: best cinematography
Cannes Film Festival 2001: Prix de la mise en scène, best director, world première
Cinematic Intelligence Agency Trenchcoat Awards 2002

Studios and distributors:

Alliance Atlantis * Buena Vista International

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

The man who wasn't there has the odd resonance with Ethan and Joel's immediately previous film, O brother, where art thou?

There's a journey back through time to a simpler age which turns out to be not so simpler after all. The characters appear to be cardboard cut-outs then turn side on and show the true depth of their personalities. The people are ordinary yet they are drawn into extraordinary situations.

It's good.

It's just not that good. The lives of the characters are smaller than your own. Ed is a wonderfully numbed man but you can't connect with someone like that: they have no extensions onto which you can grab. Doris is equally worn down by the stunning lack of excitement in her life and is too smooth in her mundanaeity to give you a handhold. Even the big dreaming Big Dave has dreams that reach only moderate levels of mediocrity. Their cares, their worries, their follies, their foibles, their loves are more like bacteria swarming under a microscope than anything to which you can relate.

Which is not to say that The man who wasn't there isn't funny, it's often hilarious, but you'll walk out of the cinema feeling better about your life because no matter how bad it is, and it is, at least you aren't that bad.

Billy Bob overcomes his distinctive screen presence to bring you new levels of the small man living his small life. Ed is as exciting as cardboard and has all the thrilling passion of blancmange. If you can remember back to U2's Numb then you'll know exactly how he is. Frances, a deserved favourite of Ethan and Joel, is a woman living her life according to the great American plan: school, marriage and, in lieu of family, clerical work. Her affair with Big Dave is so boring that it doesn't even make it onto the screen. James is James.

The man who wasn't there falls under its own wheels in that a film about a numb man can only result in a numb film (and a numb audience), but you'll still be able to use it for your fix of Coenism. Just let it wash over you.