[Richard W. Haines]

thxgoon,

I guess there's a tendency, if not danger, of appologizing for a director if you
admire their work. We all do it and professional film critics are especially guilty
of it. The Cohen brothers have made a number of very interesting and quirky films
that work on multiple levels. My favorite happens to be "Barton Fink" which is an
outrageous lampoon of the golden age of Hollywood which wasn't so golden depending
on your position in the industry.
The acting and camerawork are fine in this movie but I cannot excuse their lack of
an ending, climax or resolution to the drama. As much as I admire them I'll have
to say that's simply bad storytelling. This picture is an over-rated misfire. Since
they had such a memorable villain, it's a major failure in that it fails to deliver a
satisfactory narrative. It reminds me of Orson Welles' "Magnificent Amberson",
Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" and Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America". You
want them to work because of their past films but they don't. This picture is worth
a look but it's pretty much a given that most people will be very disappointed with
this Cohen brothers film. Personally, I didn't like the ending of "Barton Fink" either
but at least it had an ending.