O Brother, Where Art Thou?

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 102 min Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The Coen Brothers have done it again. These are the same guys who brought us such quirky classics as Raising Arizona and Fargo. If you like those two movies, you’ll love O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The movie is roughly based on Homer’s “Odyssey”. Set in very rural Mississippi during the Great Depression, the story is about three escaped prisoners who go on an adventure and meet up with some very colorful characters. That’s about all we can say about the plot without spoiling anything. The situations and characters involved range from weird to absolutely hysterical.

George Clooney is the leader of the trio of misfits, and although I’m not a Clooney fan he’s absolutely fantastic in this role. I would’ve never imagined he could do slack jawed comedy so well. John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson are also hysterical as his two cohorts, however a real scene stealer is Charles Durning as the Governor. You’ll also find other familiar faces from other Coen movies including Holly Hunter and John Goodman in small parts.

In addition to being known for creating some really off the wall characters and situations to put them in, the Coen brothers also often get a little creative cinematically. For instance all of the motion shots in Raising Arizona was revolutionary for it’s time. What they’ve done here is made a movie released in 2001 look like it’s something out of the 1930’s. They washed out much of the color to give the movie almost a sepia tone type feel. The opening titles and soundtrack also contribute to the old movie feel. This gives a very artistic feel to a quirky story that I suspect the Oscar people are going to love.

The Coen brothers can be a bit of an acquired taste. Some people just do not get their sense of humor. If you didn’t like their previous works, you should avoid this one like the plague. However, for those of us that are fans of their work, this movie is a classic already. I laughed constantly throughout the movie, it has very few slow spots. And not only does this movie get one of our rare 5 star ratings, it received it with virtually no deliberation among the crew who screened the movie together. Bottom line this is a slam dunk. Go see it.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 5 Stars, Comedy, Ed Gale, George Clooney, Holly Hunter, John Turturro, PG-13, Theatrical, Tim Blake Nelson