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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Smart Art Film
Smart movie.
Very artistically done; the black and white cinematography is amazing.
Superbly acted.
And, in the true sense of the Film Noire genre, keeps you guessing at every turn.
I found the ending quite unexpected, and though a bit on the down side, successfully portrays the more chilling aspects of human existence, leaving the viewer with some food for thought, and the age-old dictum about crime not paying.
Well done.
To Cook is Divine, Italian, Filipino, and Southern-style Vegetarian Recipes from Outside the Box
Rating: -
Great Noir Pastiche
So, now I have two great movies ("Ghost World" and this) and two good movies ("The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" and "Joe Dirt") for 2001. Although I liked "Ghost World" better, on the whole, "Man Who Wasn't There" is a great movie, much better than "Curse of Jade Scorpion," which is something I thought I'd never say, not because I thought Woody Allen's movie was so great (face it, he's slipping), but because I could never get into a Coen brothers movie before, despite several attempts.
First of all, I thought Billy Bob Thornton's performance really kept the movie going along. He seems to be the only actor recently come up that understands the importance of subtle shifts in facial gestures and posture to create a mood or to change character. It was like a virtuoso performance, just watching him. He's a sort of "thinking man's actor," like Orson Welles, but without the bombast. I liked him in "The Apostle," but his character was more straightforward in that one. He's got the same thing going in "Man Who Wasn't there" that the great method actors, Brando, Clift, Landau and Strasberg had at their peak, which is really weird, because if you look at him in this one, Thornton looks like a cross between Montgomery Clift (after the car crash) and an older Martin Landau.
I loved the lawyer, played by Tony Shalhoub. He's so smooth and polished, and knows how to use words like a stiletto (thanks, Burt Lancaster, for that line). The scene in which Thornton's wife, Doris (played by Frances McDormand) kills herself is a screamer; He has absolutely no remorse over her death except for the fact it denied him an opportunity for courtroom pyrotechnics.
I also loved the references to such movies as "Double Indemnity" (though the name of the dept. store, 'Nirdlinger's' comes from the victims name in James M. Cain's book, not the movie, in which Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler changed it to 'Dietrichson,'
though there's a 'Dietrichson' in this movie [medical examiner], plus the plot is loosely based on 'Indemnity.'). The pansy (Jon Polito) stayed at "Hobart Arms," which is out of "The Big Sleep." The scene in which the kid diving finds the pansy was right out of "Night of the Hunter," and Billy Bob Thornton's undeterred enthusiasm in molding Birdie (Scarlett Johansson) into a great concert pianist reminded me of Jimmy Stewart's mania for reincarnating Judy as the dead Madeleine in "Vertigo." Of course that flops, and Scarlett Johannson gets Thornton into a car crash in an R-rated version of how John Garfield killed Lana Turner in "The Postman Always Rings Twice."
Of course, I knew beforehand that the cinematography was superb. I thought that meant "superb by today's substandards," but I'd put its camerawork up against "Double Indemnity," "Key Largo" or "Notorious."
The only drawback is that Carter Burwell's score was so laid back. This movie deserved a great, dramatic Germanic score, heavy on tubas, bassoons, double-basses and trombones. I liked the Beethoven sonatas played so flatly by Scarlett Johansson, but the score apart from them was sort of generic. So, I give this one 3-1/2 out of 4, based on the score. With a score like Max Steiner's (like"The Big Sleep"), Roy Webb ("Out of the Past"), Alfred Newman ("All About Eve"), Miklos Rosza ("Double Indemnity"), Franz Waxman ("Sorry, Wrong Number"), Henry Mancini ("Touch of Evil") or Bernard Herrmann ("Cape Fear" or "Vertigo"), this movie would have been 100% solid.
Rating: 
-
Great Noir Pastiche
So, now I have two great movies ("Ghost World" and this) and two good movies ("The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" and "Joe Dirt") for 2001. Although I liked "Ghost World" better, on the whole, "Man Who Wasn't There" is a great movie, much better than "Curse of Jade Scorpion," which is something I thought I'd never say, not because I thought Woody Allen's movie was so great (face it, he's slipping), but because I could never get into a Coen brothers movie before, despite several attempts.
First of all, I thought Billy Bob Thornton's performance really kept the movie going along. He seems to be the only actor recently come up that understands the importance of subtle shifts in facial gestures and posture to create a mood or to change character. It was like a virtuoso performance, just watching him. He's a sort of "thinking man's actor," like Orson Welles, but without the bombast. I liked him in "The Apostle," but his character was more straightforward in that one. He's got the same thing going in "Man Who Wasn't there" that the great method actors, Brando, Clift, Landau and Strasberg had at their peak, which is really weird, because if you look at him in this one, Thornton looks like a cross between Montgomery Clift (after the car crash) and an older Martin Landau.
I loved the lawyer, played by Tony Shalhoub. He's so smooth and polished, and knows how to use words like a stiletto (thanks, Burt Lancaster, for that line). The scene in which Thornton's wife, Doris (played by Frances McDormand) kills herself is a screamer; He has absolutely no remorse over her death except for the fact it denied him an opportunity for courtroom pyrotechnics.
I also loved the references to such movies as "Double Indemnity" (though the name of the dept. store, 'Nirdlinger's' comes from the victims name in James M. Cain's book, not the movie, in which Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler changed it to 'Dietrichson,'
though there's a 'Dietrichson' in this movie [medical examiner], plus the plot is loosely based on 'Indemnity.'). The pansy (Jon Polito) stayed at "Hobart Arms," which is out of "The Big Sleep." The scene in which the kid diving finds the pansy was right out of "Night of the Hunter," and Billy Bob Thornton's undeterred enthusiasm in molding Birdie (Scarlett Johansson) into a great concert pianist reminded me of Jimmy Stewart's mania for reincarnating Judy as the dead Madeleine in "Vertigo." Of course that flops, and Scarlett Johannson gets Thornton into a car crash in an R-rated version of how John Garfield killed Lana Turner in "The Postman Always Rings Twice."
Of course, I knew beforehand that the cinematography was superb. I thought that meant "superb by today's substandards," but I'd put its camerawork up against "Double Indemnity," "Key Largo" or "Notorious."
The only drawback is that Carter Burwell's score was so laid back. This movie deserved a great, dramatic Germanic score, heavy on tubas, bassoons, double-basses and trombones. I liked the Beethoven sonatas played so flatly by Scarlett Johansson, but the score apart from them was sort of generic. So, I give this one 3-1/2 out of 4, based on the score. With a score like Max Steiner's (like"The Big Sleep"), Roy Webb ("Out of the Past"), Alfred Newman ("All About Eve"), Miklos Rosza ("Double Indemnity"), Franz Waxman ("Sorry, Wrong Number"), Henry Mancini ("Touch of Evil") or Bernard Herrmann ("Cape Fear" or "Vertigo"), this movie would have been 100% solid.
Rating: -
Great Noir Pastiche
So, now I have two great movies ("Ghost World" and this) and two good movies ("The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" and "Joe Dirt") for 2001. Although I liked "Ghost World" better, on the whole, "Man Who Wasn't There" is a great movie, much better than "Curse of Jade Scorpion," which is something I thought I'd never say, not because I thought Woody Allen's movie was so great (face it, he's slipping), but because I could never get into a Coen brothers movie before, despite several attempts.
First of all, I thought Billy Bob Thornton's performance really kept the movie going along. He seems to be the only actor recently come up that understands the importance of subtle shifts in facial gestures and posture to create a mood or to change character. It was like a virtuoso performance, just watching him. He's a sort of "thinking man's actor," like Orson Welles, but without the bombast. I liked him in "The Apostle," but his character was more straightforward in that one. He's got the same thing going in "Man Who Wasn't there" that the great method actors, Brando, Clift, Landau and Strasberg had at their peak, which is really weird, because if you look at him in this one, Thornton looks like a cross between Montgomery Clift (after the car crash) and an older Martin Landau.
I loved the lawyer, played by Tony Shalhoub. He's so smooth and polished, and knows how to use words like a stiletto (thanks, Burt Lancaster, for that line). The scene in which Thornton's wife, Doris (played by Frances McDormand) kills herself is a screamer; He has absolutely no remorse over her death except for the fact it denied him an opportunity for courtroom pyrotechnics.
I also loved the references to such movies as "Double Indemnity" (though the name of the dept. store, 'Nirdlinger's' comes from the victims name in James M. Cain's book, not the movie, in which Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler changed it to 'Dietrichson,'
though there's a 'Dietrichson' in this movie [medical examiner], plus the plot is loosely based on 'Indemnity.'). The pansy (Jon Polito) stayed at "Hobart Arms," which is out of "The Big Sleep." The scene in which the kid diving finds the pansy was right out of "Night of the Hunter," and Billy Bob Thornton's undeterred enthusiasm in molding Birdie (Scarlett Johansson) into a great concert pianist reminded me of Jimmy Stewart's mania for reincarnating Judy as the dead Madeleine in "Vertigo." Of course that flops, and Scarlett Johannson gets Thornton into a car crash in an R-rated version of how John Garfield killed Lana Turner in "The Postman Always Rings Twice."
Of course, I knew beforehand that the cinematography was superb. I thought that meant "superb by today's substandards," but I'd put its camerawork up against "Double Indemnity," "Key Largo" or "Notorious."
The only drawback is that Carter Burwell's score was so laid back. This movie deserved a great, dramatic Germanic score, heavy on tubas, bassoons, double-basses and trombones. I liked the Beethoven sonatas played so flatly by Scarlett Johansson, but the score apart from them was sort of generic. So, I give this one 3-1/2 out of 4, based on the score. With a score like Max Steiner's (like"The Big Sleep"), Roy Webb ("Out of the Past"), Alfred Newman ("All About Eve"), Miklos Rosza ("Double Indemnity"), Franz Waxman ("Sorry, Wrong Number"), Henry Mancini ("Touch of Evil") or Bernard Herrmann ("Cape Fear" or "Vertigo"), this movie would have been 100% solid.
Rating: -
The Man Who Wasn't There - 1 Line Review
A laconic, chain-smoking barber blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong.
