O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

O'BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
March 9th, 2001

I sat watching the Coen Bros. latest film, "O'Brother, Where Art Thou?" in stunned silence. I certainly watched with admiration that the Coens would be interested in the Depression era. I liked the art direction and the cinematography by gifted cinematographer Roger Deakins, who also photographed "Fargo." The film has a sense of time and place, and it has all the hallmarks of a wonderfully crafted period piece. The problem is that there is no attitude, no edge, no life. In fact, this remains the most lifeless, laughless comedy I've seen in years, and the Coens are to blame entirely for this misfire.

The film begins promisingly enough with the shot of a chain gang working on a railroad. Three prisoners escape and keep ducking across an open wheat field, unseen by the prison guards. They are Ulysses Everett McGill (thin mustached George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro), and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) - three fools with not one brain cell to their name. Nevertheless, Ulysses considers himself the leader of the group as they try unsuccessfully to hop on a freight train. Later, their chains are cut by a local who turns them in to the cops. The trio escape, finding themselves in one comical situation after another. Ulysses's intent is to find some secretly stashed money that they can split among themselves. Along this journey, they encounter trigger-happy Babyface Nelson (Michael Badalucco) who hates to be called Babyface, a one-eyed, vicious Bible salesman (John Goodman), members of the Klu Klux Klan, a remote radio station man (Stephen Root) where the trio cut a record as the Soggy Bottom Boys, and three sirens by a river who luxuriate their sex appeal in one of the most surreal setpieces the Coens have ever devised in their career.

And yet I was mortified by how little any of this made me laugh, much less chuckle. I sat watching all these events unfold on screen yet none of it engaged me on any level. Every sequence is flat and joyless, including a KKK rally that is neither ominous nor remotely funny. There is one brief segment involving the possibility that Pete has turned into a horny toad but it never leads anywhere. The sequences hang loosely with no weight or substance.

The actors do not help in the least. Clooney, Turturro and Nelson merely react with artifical expressions that seem less alive than those found in a Norman Rockwell painting. The Coens refuse to invest any humanity in these characters so that every single situation, every actor, every line is reinforced with a robotic mentality that produces no chemistry, no interest and no imagination. Holly Hunter shows up in a throwaway cameo as McGill's previous lover who finds him to less than "bona fide." She shows some strength and vitality and refuses to come off as an automaton or a cartoonish caricature, unlike the rest of the cast.

"O'Brother, Where Art Thou?" reminded me of the frenetic road comedy by the Coens known as "Raising Arizona," which has become something of a cult clas sic and which I less than admire. I suppose their over-the-top brand of humor of the anything-goes school of comedy doesn't click with me at all, as I was also one of the few supporters of "The Hudsucker Proxy." I admire their intentions in creating a zany comedic period piece (and thus basing it on Homer's "The Odyssey") but I found nothing here to connect with me on any level. Perhaps it is time for them to go back to their film noir roots, "Blood Simple" and "Fargo," two of my favorites by the Coens. Here, the Coens seem to be dangerously close to traveling nowhere.

E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at jerry@movieluver.com or at Faust667@aol.com