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O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) |
| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
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| Story: |
B |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
A- |
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| Visuals: |
A- |
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1930's road trip Coen style.
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Jun 25, 2005
4
of
4 people found this review helpful
"O Brother.." is a film that rarely comes your way. Intelligent, funny, visually beautiful and anarchistic - and still comprehensible to a wide audience. The bluegrass soundtrack is brilliant and gives a loose, relaxed feeling to the whole movie.
The script is claims to be based on Homer's "The Odyssey", but the references are sparse and the Coen brothers are known to have confessed that they haven't even read the legend. While the the sirens, the cyclops, the suitors and the journey itself are a nice touch, the more important thing is the feel that this background (if you will) brings to the story. It's a 1930's road movie with a poetic twist. A lot of the dialog is witty and has a likeness for scripts written for theatre. My absolute favorite was George Clooney character's (Everett Ulysses McGill) reaction when they are surrounded in a farm by the police and farm is set on fire: he just keeps on repeating "Damn, were in a tight spot!" like a jamming record. And you gotta love that lush southern accent that a lot of the characters speak.
The story is simple - and for a reason. This gives the Coens a lot of space to develop the intresting side characters and most of all the way the movie looks like. I loved the color of the movie, the dirt-brown feel of the land that these misfortunate travelers go through. A lot of the scenes are plain absurd and yet there's nothing supernatural about the film. On the contrary, it's a personal angle of view on the southern way of life in the 1930's.
You really can't talk about the "O Brother..." without discussing the score. The music of the movie is like an additional character, the essense of the film. I'll give it an A+ in a second if asked and propably will have to see if my local recordstore carries the soundtrack in their selection. And I'm not a huge fan of roots either. You could say that the music keeps the story together and determines the style in which it has to played out.
The actors do a fine job and the cast is very well balanced. If I have to dig up dirt somewhere, I would say that Chris Thomas King as Tommy (the guitarplayer who sell's his soul to the devil for a divine guitar playing ability) is a bit lame. His role would have ingredients for more, or maybe the choice of actor for the role just doesn't do it for me.
All in all, an exceptional movie. Not all straight A's, but definately one to watch.
:T |
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