The man who wasn’t there

Ed Crane is a quiet, no bullshit, chain smoking barber, who works at his brother in law’s Franks barber shop. Ed is the kind of man who is quite happy to say nothing and would answer any questions with a simple yes, no or hmmm. His brother in law frank continually chats on and on to him while Ed for the most part ignores him and smokes with the occasional grunt thrown in just to fain interest for the sake of politeness. He convinced his wife Doris is having an affair with her boss big Dave, but he doesn’t really care. Until one day a man walks into his barber shop. This man is Creighton a wig wearing businessman who came to town to try and get a $10000 investment from big Dave to open a dry cleaning shop only to get turned down. Ed doesn’t know that Creighton had his meeting with big Dave but as Creighton gives his pitch Ed starts mulling it over.

Ed formulates a plan to blackmail big Dave for the money. He’s successful but but big Dave finds Creighton and through him finds out Ed is the one blackmailing him.

Up until this point in the movie the tone is quite humorous with Ed’s narration of what’s going through his head and his dry response. But now things get dark real quick.

Big Dave try’s to kill Ed for ruining him and Ed ends up killing big Dave in self defence.

Ed flees and the next day is informed by to police officers that his wife has been arrested for murder and embezzlement.

Ed turns to his lawyer friend Walter for advice and he tells him about Freddy Riedenschneider who is the best but very expensive lawyer for Doris. Frank mortgages his barber shop to pay the bills for the lawyer. But ultimately it is all for nothing, as latter and after her lawyer has racked up a huge bill Doris hangs herself in prison.

There’s a particularly poignant scene during this where Ed try’s to confess to killing big Dave but it’s dismissed by his lawyer as an attempt to save Doris. I think that Doris thinks that Ed tried to sacrifice himself for her as well and this is why she hung her self. We find out latter that she was also pregnant with big Daves baby.

Ed is Lonely now and Frank riddled in debt and turns to drink.

Ed starts fantasising about managing Walters daughter Birdy music career. He takes her to the best music teacher around but he tells him that while she’s ok she will never be anything special. On the way back she starts trying to give Ed a blowjob and Ed crashes the car.

When he wakes up he’s in hospital and arrested for murdering Creighton. Who was actually killed by big Dave. Ed gives his house to the lawyer Freddy Riedenschneider but it’s not enough. After one miss trail the money runs out and he’s left with a public defender who tells him to plead guilty. Frank is sentence to death.

I love this movie like all the Coen brother movies that I’ve seen. It’s stylish and humorous throughout, despite the heavy subject matter in the latter part of the film. There are some great performances throughout from Billy Bob Thornton as Ed, Scarlett Johansson as Birdy, the late great James Gandolfini as Big Dave and Michael Badalucco as Frank.

While this isn’t my favourite Coen brothers film I still love it. It’s a solid film full of ups and downs. While the ending of the film is ultimately pointless for Ed it’s more about absurd journey of a man who wasn’t really there. His story comes full circle from a man that’s sick of the people around him to ultimately not enjoying the loneliness when there all gone and from getting away with murder to being convicted of murdering someone he didn’t.

4 smokes out of 5