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Billy Bob Thornton is Ed Crane, a barber. Ed suspects that his wife Doris (Frances McDormand) is having an affair with her boss, Big Dave (James Gandolfini). Although that doesn't seem to bother him a lot (in fact, nothing seems to bother Ed a whole hell of a lot) Ed wants some stake money to go into the about to be up-and-coming dry cleaning business (cleaning without water, get it?). He decides to send an anonymous black mail letter to his Big Dave threatening exposure of his affair with Doris unless he coughs up $10k. I may have already told you too much, and since the plot devices surrounding this situation are the best part of the movie, I'll stop there.

Had the events I described above remained the focus of the movie, this could be a new classic. But frankly, the movie veers off course and never regains the intense momentum and suspense generated in the first 45 minutes. While we get the off-kilter imagery and off-beat characterizations that the Coens are notorious for, this movie forgets what it's about, if it ever actually knew. It's like the movie ends at a certain, obvious point, and the epilogue spins on and on to a not-so-logical conclusion.

On the plus side, the black and white imagery is just gorgeous, enough to recommend the film by itself. And the performances are terrific. Billy Bob Thornton is the ultimate straight man in what is, in many ways, a comedy of sorts. And there is some genuine humor in Michael Badalucco (as Ed Crane's brother-in-law) riding the pig, and Tony Shaloub's hysterical turn as defense attorney Freddy Riedenschneider, both of which are comic standouts. Great filmmakers failures are often more compelling than lesser artists successes. The Coens are great filmmakers, and this film is not without things to admire. And for movie fans the added attraction of this DVD is a first-ever running commentary by the Coens, along with other special features.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The Man Who Wasn't There is presented in anamorphic widescreen and framed at approximately 1.78:1. The image quality honors the theatrical presentation I saw of cinematographer Roger Deakins' sumptuous, striking black and white photography. The blacks are exceptionally deep, and enveloping, but with outstanding shadow details. Contrast is outstanding, and the image overall is sharp and three-dimensional. Although some halos around darker foreground objects are occasionally noticeable, the iamge never took on an artificially hard or digital look. This is simply one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen, and this DVD captures it. It actually looks like film.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Dialog is always intelligible, and natural sounding. Thornton's voice over is appropriately chesty sounding, which is the intent. Some good dynamics are occasionally shown, and the film's often haunting and lyrical score shows good fidelity. This is a fine presentation of a soundtrack that was never intended to be demo material.

Also included is French Dolby 5.1 surround track, plus French and Spanish subtitles are included, along with English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Let's start with the most exciting feature, the screen-specific audio commentary with Joel and Ethan Coen and star Billy Bob Thornton. This commentary is informative and hilarious, and boy, are these three guys on the same page! The report seems so genuine I wouldn't be at all surprised if another collaboration between the three were in the future. They all have more than their fair share of laughs at Ed Crane's expense, and Billy Bob reveals a certain nuance of his performance during a scene with Scarlett Johansson that you won't have noticed but won't forget once you've seen it!

Two of the features, The Making of The Man Who Wasn't There and the Interview with Cinematographer Roger Deakins are mostly comprised of shoddily edited interviews. They're interesting and very informative, but rough around the edges compared to a lot of the material we see on DVD. I did learn that throughout shooting this film was called "Untitled Barber Movie," which I think is actually more appropriate. The Deakins interview is absolutely fascinating, running nearly 50 minutes. I've always bee a fan of his and if you are too, this feature is a real treasure.

The Deleted Material consists of 5 "scenes." While the first is a genuine scene, featuring Reidenschneider's opening statement to the jury, there are 3 clips, lasting a few seconds each, named after the hairstyle they portray, and another of a salad. Strange but true. In addition to a Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery, there are Filmographies of the principals involved, the Theatrical Trailer, and two TV Spots done in the vein of "One of the Year's Best Films."

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts