2000 / 103 Minutes / PG-13
Reviewed by Jason Jones

Most people know the Coen brothers for their look at life in the Midwest that is the film “Fargo”. Unlike most people that film didn’t set particularly well with me. When I think of the Coens I immediately think of “The Big Lebowski”. A film that I would consider to be one of the finest comedies ever put together. Given the fact that, that was their most recently made film, I had high hopes for their newest work “O Brother Where Art Thou?”. Unfortunately the film could not manage to come anywhere near the fun that films such as “State and Main” provide let alone the greatness of “The Big Lebowski”.

“O Brother Where Art Thou?” is a story loosely based on Homer’s story “The Odyssey”, that involves three escaped cons and their quest for freedom, amongst other things. On their journey they run across a blind prophet, three sirens, a cyclops wannabe bible-salesman amidst a myriad of trials and tribulations. This is pretty much the extent of the content of the film.

This is a film that relies heavily upon a series of loosely connected stories to get it’s point across much the same as “Monty Python and The Holy Grail”. Much like the “Holy Grail” it has a mixed bag of hits and misses that result in a fairly benign filmgoing experience. It is a film that contains a number of great moments, although far to few in number to take it anywhere near the heights of greatness that one would expect of the film.

The opening scene when our heroes escape the chain gang is definitely a memorable one. Any scene involving Clooney and his hair gel fetish got a laugh from me. Clooney getting piss pounded by a campaign advisor was also good for many laughs. The Klan rally was interesting, but also felt a bit drawn out. The best scene in the movie involved a car chase, our heroes, “Babyface” Nelson and cattle. Believe me, it is every bit as entertaining as it sounds.

Then there are the bad moments. Our heroes getting involved in bank robberies, getting sold out by one of their relatives, etc. The part with the sirens was marginal at best. I must say I expected a little more out of that scene. Worst of all was the shameless waste of John Goodman’s talents as the cyclops- inspired bible salesman. When he first appeared I had to laugh, because I expected a great many laughs to come with his presence on the screen. Unfortunately, I never laughed again during his segment of the film. A man who made greatness out of roles in “The Big Lebowski” and “Raising Arizona” does little more than fade with a whimper from this film. This is by no fault of his own mind you. He tries. Oh how he tries. There is just nothing there for him to work with. I think I have probably made the point by now that I was disappointed by his part in the film. Tim Blake Nelson is given little more to do than mug for the camera and say something about a toad every so often during his first major screen role. John Turturro does a fair job of bringing his void of a character to life in at least a minimal way. He doesn’t have to do much more than Nelson with the exception of getting a little animated with Clooney every now and then. Speaking of Clooney. He is definitely the high water mark of the film. He brings an exuberance and charm to his role that is sorely lacking in the rest of the film. There are many scenes where he need not do anymore than raise an eyebrow to get laughs from me. Part of the problem with that is that many of the things I laughed at were probably just because it was Clooney doing these ridiculous things that you never would have previously envisioned him doing. Never the less he did make it much easier for me to obtain laughs from this movie.

In the end, this film is a couple of notches above average based solely on Clooney’s performance. Most everything else just hangs there, including the film itself, which felt like it was about 15 to 20 minutes longer than it needed to be. With that said I would only give this film a marginal endorsement. If you are a fan of the Coens or George Clooney then by all means see it. Otherwise, everyone else need not apply.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2000 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Jason's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.