THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE 2001
by
Joel COEN
Billy Bob Thornton, a silent, passive, perceptive barber who works in his brother-in-law's shop, gets an idea that his wife, Frances McDormand, who works in a fashion store, is having an affair with her boss, James Gandolfini. Billy's character is a bored man, always smoking and staring into unknown. He has no use for words, but you do get an idea that he finds it increasingly difficult to tolerate jibber-jabber. Billy uses the information to blackmail James' character and uses the money to make an investment. When the latter comes to know about this, they have a scuffle in which the husband ends up killing the paramour.
This film is shot in black and white, is a film noir. But this the story of a common man who stumbles upon a crime but is not a professional criminal. The film is a masterclass in underplay. Thornton's passivity is almost too haunting. The film did not run perhaps because it was in B&W. It is almost too unheroic to accept. But not a lesser film by any stretch!
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