I don't always love or even like their movies but they hit often enough to rank among my favorite writer/directors. Movies like Fargo, The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou? never grow old for me. On the other hand, The Hudsucker Proxy, Raising Arizona and The Man Who Wasn't There just sort of lay there for me. It doesn't matter. They are creative funny guys always looking for just the right tone, sound or look for their movies. Unfortunately, The Ladykillers is one of their efforts that just lays there.
They were going for the feel of a deep South baptist community and in that, they succeed admirably. Cinematographer Roger Deakins creates such an effective atmosphere that the film feels almost overly perfect in look. There are some magnificent shots to open the film that focus on gargoyles high up on a bridge.
The basic idea of the story is that Tom Hanks plays a overly educated thief by the name of G.H. Dorr. He arrives on the doorstep of Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), an older widowed woman renting out a room in her house. Dorr isn't really interested in living there. What he wants is access to her root cellar, from which he plans to tunnel into the vault of a company running a riverboat casino. Under the guise of being musicians who want to practice in the root cellar, his team begins his devious plan.
The crew is an interesting assortment. Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons) is the demolitions expert with a nasty case of irritable bowel syndrome. Tzi Ma plays The General, a stoic Vietnamese veteran with a lot of tunnel experience. Gawain (Marlon Wayans) is the inside man at the casino, and a cocky motormouth. Finally there is Lump, a college football player with virtually nothing going on upstairs. The crew doesn't really get along well but they are none the less effective. They pull off the heist and then run into a major hitch. Marva catches them in the act and threatens to turn them in. That leaves them no choice but to try and bump her off, a task they seem completely unprepared for.
It's nice to see Tom Hanks doing comedy again. Before he got all serious on us, he was a damn funny guy with impeccable comic timing. It's nice to see him return to his roots. Unfortunately, the Coen brothers have such an overly mannered character for him that he rarely gets to do his best work, shackled to an odd speaking style. He and Hall have a great chemistry together and the movie's high points are their verbal sparring. Hall dominates the movie by effectively stealing every scene she's in.
The rest of the crew are fine but like Hanks, are confined to such one note characters that they really can't add much spark. The film feels too restrained, when it really needed a kind of manic energy to make the situations generate real comedy. It's like driving around in Corvette with a Geo engine: looks great but can't get out of its own way.
The Coen's once again secured the services of T-Bone Burnett to put together the soundtrack, heavily laced with gospel music that creates some of the movie's most energetic scenes. He helped them before to put together the hugely successful O Brother soundtrack of bluegrass music. The music alone almost saves the movie.
This is clearly not the Coen's best work. It looks great as always but handcuffs most of the cast with restrictive dialogue or characterizations. It's not a bad movie but it is unfortunately hard to recommend. Hardcore Hanks and Coen fans should take a look. The rest of you can be forgiven for checking out something else.
-
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
