a review by Jeffrey Overstreet
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Regarding the Coen Brothers’ new film The Big Lebowski, every critic seems compelled to say, “Well, it’s no Fargo.”
But Lebowski is a completely different kind of film. Yes, Fargo was a classic of the crime genre. But anybody who has seen more than one Coen film knows that they dabble in different genres and styles without compromising their standards. Sometimes they’re philosophical, sometimes merely entertaining; yet, they always write memorable dialogue, and they coax the best performances out of great actors.
This time, they’ve brought the best out of Jeff Bridges.
Bridges is “The Dude”, an affable unemployed Neanderthal that survived the 60’s, so full of pot smoke he can hardly comprehend what’s happening. We stagger and reel right along with him as he is mistaken for a different Lebowski — “the millionaire Lebowski” — and gets caught up in a kidnapping caper, bouncing between ransacked apartments, parking lots, psycho-nihilists, pornographers’ lounges, bowling alleys, taxi cabs, limousines, fights with nihilists.
And the movie mirrors its main character. Although enjoyable, The Big Lebowski is sloppy and out of focus with nothing to say. The film flaunts its incoherence. Some scenes are downright boring, and the recurring laughlines get old fast. But the highlights are grand highlights, and worth waiting for, especially the Dude’s show-stopping drug-induced musical hallucinations.
It goes so far so fast, we only catch glimpses of a world of interesting characters — Jon Goodman: the Vietman vet who pulls his gun at the slightest provocation. Sam Elliot: the cowboy storyteller, accentuating that this is a tall tale. Julianne Moore: a bizarre experimentalist in erotic art. Steve Buscemi: the bowling partner who can’t get a word in edgewise. And best of all, John Turturro in a performance that redefines “over-the-top”: a hispanic bowling champion child-molester named Jesus (pronounced like the savior).
And then there’s the Big Lebowski himself. The Coens love the Man Behind the Desk. In Raising Arizona, they had Nathan Arizona. Miller’s Crossing had Albert Finney as Leo, the Irish Godfather of Crime. In Barton Fink… the president of Capitol Pictures. In The Hudsucker Proxy, Charles Durning swelled to fill the role of Waring Hudsucker. All of these characters have made lasting impressions of power-abusing control-freaks, arrogant jerks, and megaphone big-talkers. The millionaire Lebowski is rich, old, and offensively prideful. Unfortunately, he’s also a bland character. They would have been wise to bring back Charles Durning or Michael Lerner, actors that make that famous Coen dialogue sing.
Still, this is one glitch in a big busy engine. The Big Lebowski is an exercise in over-the top, a rollercoaster ride of sensory overload. Seems the Coens collected outrageous scenes that didn’t fit in their previous films, and glued them together into this incoherent mess. No, it’s no Fargo. It’s the most flamboyant, erratic, spontaneous movie they’ve made.
I suppose it is worth noting that in this bizarre landscape, the one who seems somewhat “heroic” is the one who treats people with common decency and an easygoing “cool” rather than prejudice, manipulation, and greed. Still, it’s rather ridiculous to dig for much meaning here… it’s meant to be a surreal comedy. And it works as such.
One can only dream what actor the Coens will take on next. They’ve brought the best from Holly Hunter, Nicolas Cage, Judy Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gabriel Byrne…. Imagine what they could do, putting lines in the mouths of Jack Nicholson, Tommy Lee Jones, Glenn Close, Robin Williams, Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Tom Hanks….