Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) is a barber in a small California town circa 1948. A quiet man who rarely speaks more than a few sentences on any topic, he has been married to Doris (Frances McDormand) for many years. Doris is more sociable and drags Ed to parties and dinners. She is a bookkeeper for Big Mike (James Gandolfini), a department store bigwig by marriage. Somehow, Ed gets news that Doris is cheating on him with Big Mike. Therefore, he concocts a scheme to blackmail the Big Man with a secret letter. Ed wants to invest money with an up and coming businessman and maybe escape his routine. However, Mike finds out and invites Ed to his office on another pretext. In the office, Big M tries to kill Ed who fights back with a handy letter opener. In a horrifying scene, Mike dies slowly in a gurgle of blood. Ed thinks his tracks are concealed. But, soon, DORIS is arrested for Mike's murder, when it is discovered she has embezzled money from the accounts. Will Ed let Doris take the rap for him? Into this deadly mix comes a piano playing Lolita (Scarlett Johanssen) who takes Ed's attention off the crisis in his life. In this labyrinth movie, there are more twists and turns ahead! Here is another winner from the national treasure of the Coen Brothers. Shot in black and white, it is a quietly noir movie of great power, in words and concepts. Thornton delivers a performance of praise while all of the others, including Gandolfini, do likewise. Naturally, the art direction and costumes bring the forties to life with gusto. So, don't say there isn't anything to do this evening when you can get your mitts on this flick!

The Man Who Wasn't There will hit the right spot with everyone that love dark, melancholic films with tragic stories. The choice to shoot it in black and white was perfect, it sets the right atmosphere and almost feels like the dark colors are a character itself.It is a slowburner but you will not be bored for a second, the Coen brothers paced it masterfully. No need to for many words when it comes to acting, you can not expect disappointment from a cast of that caliber. You will sympathise with the protagonist, a character of few words stuck in a small place, a job he does not particularly like, a cheating wife and no light on the horizon for the future. When he finally decides to do something about it, that goes wrong too and we get a typical but great film-noir story. He is an embodiment of thousands and thousands of people who might be going through the same thing when every day feels the same and who see dark clouds even on sunny days. Beethoven's beautiful piano music fits perfectly as well.Good story, great acting, technically flawless, neo-noir filmmaking at its finest, I believe you will not be disappointed.

In this film, a crime is committed by the most unsuspecting individual: the barber. I already knew the Coen brothers' taste for black humor, evident in "Fargo", which was their first movie I watched. In this film, the humorous and almost sarcastic tone is still present, although its sometimes subtle and mixed with social criticism. Ed wasn't the "man who was not there" because he was a barber, but because society never gave him importance or noticed his existence. His profession ends up becoming a symbol of this. The story is set in the 1950s, so it plays with the ideas and mentality of the time, especially the exaggerated belief in extraterrestrials, just as it makes little allusions to the cinematic aesthetics of that era (B movies, sci-fi, cinema noir). Cinematography helped a lot at this point, with an elegant black and white, balanced tones and nice contrast.Regarding the actors, Billy Bob Thornton is to be congratulated because he has disengaged himself in this challenge with praises. Ed is one of a few people with few sayings and an unimpressive attitude, and the actor's performance, ranging from slightly funny to slightly scary, was very good, set in a gigantic physical and expressive self-control. On the opposite side is Michael Badalucco, in a histrionic and talkative character, where the actor was excellent. Frances McDormand was also fine, especially when she split the screen with Billy Bob, and James Gandolfini did what was expected of him. Scarlett Johansson did quite well in a character who is only innocent in appearance. Finally, a note of appreciation for the soundtrack, where classic works for piano are abundant.

Aficionados of classic film noir will find this 21st century evocation of the style absolutely captivating right from the start as stunning cinematography, an uneasy atmosphere and a plot in which adultery, blackmail and murder are featured, all provide early indications of how meticulously the look and content of the piece have been created. Its story about a man who makes an error of judgement that sends his life into a downward spiral will, of course, be familiar to noir fans but in this case, the adverse consequences are so far-reaching that they also go on to devastate the lives of a number of other key characters as well.Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) is the laconic, chain-smoking, barber with a blank stare who mans the second chair at his brother-in-law's hairdressing business in Santa Rosa, California in 1949. His reticence and apparent lack of enthusiasm also spill over into his personal life where he seems to derive no joy from the parties or bingo sessions that he attends with his wife Doris (Frances McDormand) who's a heavy drinker and works as a bookkeeper at the town's largest department store (Nirdlinger's). She and her boss, Big Dave (James Gandolfini) who married into the business and claims to have been a war hero, have been having an affair for some time.One day, at the barber's shop, near closing time, a stranger called Creighton Tolliver (Jon Polito) calls by for a haircut and after removing his toupee, tells Ed that he's trying to set up a dry-cleaning business which is guaranteed to be profitable but he needs a silent partner and $10,000 capital to go ahead with the project. After giving the matter some thought, Ed successfully raises the money by blackmailing his wife's lover and immediately passes the cash on to Tolliver.From that point on, things go from bad to worse as Ed realises he's been scammed, kills Big Dave in self defence and sees Doris arrested for murder and cooking the books at Nirdlinger's. The numerous developments that follow are full of wonderful twists, black humour and tragedy and lead inexorably to the story's deeply ironic conclusion.In typical Coen Brothers' style, the movie's characters are full of interesting eccentricities, the dialogue is smart and succinct and there are also a couple of entertaining subplots involving UFOs and Ed's fascination with a teenage piano player called Birdy (Scarlett Johansson). Billy Bob Thornton's portrayal of Ed Crane is flawless as he manages to make his difficult character very real and convincing. The supporting players are also terrific, especially Frances McDormand, James Gandolfini and Tony Shalhoub who plays a high-powered defence lawyer whose considerable talent in only surpassed in magnitude by his incredible arrogance.