In Joel and Ethan Coen's new film, \The Man Who Wasn't There,"" Billy Bob Thornton plays the role of Ed Crane, an average Joe who one day finds that he's sick of working in his brother-in-law's barbershop. He cooks up a scheme to blackmail his wife's boss, Big Dave (James Gandolfini), for $10,000. Ed spills his guts to the audience and clues us in to his plot to take the money and make a mint with a sure winner, the newly invented dry cleaning business.
See, it's 1949 and dry cleaning is a new thing come with the atomic age. But this nobody didn't blackmail Big Dave simply for the money'he did it because he was angry that Big Dave was taking advantage of his wife's inclination to cheat on him, not that he likes her much anyhow. Ed Crane's plan falls apart fast and drags him and his wife Doris (Frances McDormand) through a crazy, upside-down world where everything is shrouded in uncertainty.
Joel Coen receives official directing credit but shared the duties with his brother and co-screenwriter Ethan, who gets the producer title. Together, they pay respects to film noir, which is characterized and ultimately defined by a particular kind of visual style, atmosphere and thematic mood. The Coens adeptly create some rather memorable scenes using the visual conventions of the genre while also developing some of his own innovations.
The film makes a conscious effort to touch on many characteristic noir themes such as; social anxiety, deadly sexual relationships, paranoia and psychological deviance, crime and punishment, moral ambiguity and violence. And the film addresses these themes almost as systematically as has been outlined here. It is this tendency to attempt to create a definitive example of the noir style that disrupts the film's harmony and atmosphere.
The film fails to sustain any distinct atmosphere. One gets the impression that the Coens are self-consciously parodying the tense, sinister atmosphere typical in film noir, but they fail to provide anything in its place. The constant shift and inclusion of certain scenes and motifs disrupts the film's continuity.
Moreover, the major theme suggested by the title, that Ed is inconsequential and morally not there, is passed by as the film drags on for another 30 minutes. The moment Ed Crane sits down on his sofa and realizes that his life is empty without his wife would have served as a more fitting final scene. As it stands the film becomes uninteresting after this point, but is worthwhile whether you're interested in film noir or simply in the mood for something out of the ordinary. The Coens once again show their love for the past by updating an old genre, as they did in ""O Brother Where Art Thou,"" but in the end they fail to pull it all together.
