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Man Who Wasn't There
The film tells a dark tale of infidelity and murder, crime and punishment. Set in a small northern California town of the late 40s, it follows a laconic, chain-smoking barber who blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong.
5 February 1962, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
2 February 1949, The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
6 August 1925, Paris, Île-de-France, France
31 December 1954, North Tonawanda, New York, USA
1971, Costa Mesa, California, USA
29 December 1950, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
18 June 1946, Detroit, Michigan, USA
18 September 1961, Westwood, New Jersey, USA
September 30, 2002
The Coens have resurrected a hardscrabble California of wooden porches and gravel driveways, of rolling, oak-wreathed hills and one-lane roads, and of a restless people whose meager dreams are wrecked the moment money, sex or a bottle get in the way.
June 24, 2006
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.
November 07, 2007
As good a film as I've seen this year.
December 28, 2010
Some mature themes--best for older teens.
April 01, 2011
This stylized black and white noir by the Joel and Ethan Coen is meticulously mounted but too emotionally detached and only sporadically engaging.
November 07, 2007
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.
September 19, 2010
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.
November 07, 2007
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.
July 21, 2005
Despite the movie's humor and sense of irony, it takes on a sense of somberness as it progresses.
October 13, 2009
Affectlessness is not a quality much prized in movie protagonists, but Billy Bob Thornton, that splendid actor, does it perfectly as Ed Crane.
October 14, 2011
Ed's problem isn't so much that he isn't there but that, when you finally catch a glimpse of him, there's no way to be sure exactly what has caught your gaze.