Synopsis
A tale of murder, crime and punishment set in the summer of 1949. Ed Crane, a barber in a small California town, is dissatisfied with his life, but his wife Doris' infidelity and a mysterious opportunity presents him with a chance to change it.
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Cast
- Billy Bob ThorntonEd Crane
- Frances McDormandDoris Crane
- Michael BadaluccoFrank
- James GandolfiniBig Dave Brewster
- Katherine BorowitzAnn Nirdlinger Brewster
- Jon PolitoCreighton Tolliver
- Scarlett JohanssonBirdy Abundas
- Richard JenkinsWalter Abundas
- Tony ShalhoubFreddy Riedenschneider
- Christopher KriesaOfficer Persky
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Tribune
Like all the Coens' movies, "Man" is supremely self-aware and darkly, hellishly funny. It's also brilliantly written and acted to a fare-thee-well by an outrageously good cast. - 90
The New York Times
The Coens have used the noir idiom to fashion a haunting, beautifully made movie that refers to nothing outside itself and that disperses like a vapor as soon as it's over. - 90
Los Angeles Times
You could say a lot about the very satisfying The Man Who Wasn't There, but what's for sure is that no one but the deadpan, dead-on Coen brothers could have turned it out. - 83
Entertainment Weekly
Isn't content to stick to the genre conventions it sets up. Instead, it sprawls and mutates into one of the Coens' elaborate gizmoid yarns. - 80
Washington Post
It's the latest and one of the best entries in a genre whose highest philosophical expression is the whiplash realization that the universe doesn't play fair. - 80
Variety
The Coen brothers tread into James M. Cain territory with The Man Who Wasn't There, but with less tasty results than either Cain or the Coens themselves at their best. - 63
Miami Herald
As a whole, it's a bit of a mess, the work of bratty geniuses with talent to spare, but unsure of what -- if anything -- they're trying to say. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
It's clever, in a "dare you to name this hommage" kind of way, but it's fundamentally heartless and coldly hollow.
