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THE
LADYKILLERS
8/10
USA
2004 : Joel & Ethan COEN 2004 : 104 mins
Respectable
African-American widower Marva Munson (Irma Hall) takes in a new lodger:
Professor Goldthwait Higginson Dorr (Tom Hanks), classicist, aesthete
- and criminal mastermind. Dorr is plotting an audacious heist on a nearby
riverboat casino's money-vault and assembles a crack team who meet regularly
in Marva's basement under the pretext of performing "early Renaissance
music." The robbery is a relatively smooth affair - but when the
virtuous Marva rumbles t scheme, the gang reluctantly realise that she
must be bumped off...
It's been
six long years since the last truly worthwhile Coens film, The Big
Lebowski - and their last two efforts (The
Man Who Wasn't There and Intolerable
Cruelty) were easily their worst to date. Remaking such
a renowned Ealing classic (directed by Alexander McKendrick in 1955),
meanwhile, seemed like an unwise, desperate, perverse choice. Who, for
example, could possibly fill the shoes of Alec Guinness (the original
'Professor')? Geoffrey Rush, possibly. John Malkovich, perhaps. But Tom
Hanks? When was the last time he had us rolling in the aisles?
As Dorr finds
to his cost, however, things seldom transpire as one expects. Against
overwhelming odds, this Ladykillers is a true comic treat from
start to finish - and easily the brothers' most satisfying, coherent movie
since their peerless 1984 debut Blood Simple. They sensibly retain
only the basic (solid) structure of William Rose's original screenplay:
the details are hilariously idiosyncratic and original, informed by their
inspired decision to shift location from London to the Deep South (not
that far from Rose's Missouri birthplace, in fact).
And the strike-rate
of gags is so high from the start that memories of the original are soon
banished - this version is perhaps closer in tone to larkish low-rent
heist-capers like Welcome
to Collinwood and Palookaville, with their oddball galleries
of feuding lowlifes. But this is a much classier production, behind the
camera at least. T-Bone Burnett's terrific selection of gospel numbers
works even better than his bluegrass compilation on the mega-selling soundtrack
of O Brother, Where Art Thou? Roger Deakins' colour cinematography
- a world away from his monochrome magic in The Man Who Wasn't There
- and Dennis Gassner's production-design create a recognisably modern-day
world with just the faintest hint of fantastical exaggeration, and some
surreal, deadpan grace-notes (the scavenging, scattering seagulls; a soaring,
airborne cape...)
While there
are no weak links in the ensemble cast, the picture does revolve around
Hanks's wonderfully sly and dextrous central performance as the verbose
Dorr: his work here comfortably outstrips the weightier dramatic roles
for which he's been clocking up so many awards since he went 'serious.'
The Ladykillers isn't going to trouble the Academy come next spring,
of course - Stateside reviews were knee-jerk hostile, leading to disappointingly
tepid box-office returns. Nevertheless, it'll be a pleasant surprise if
Hollywood comes up with anything so accomplished and entertaining this
year.
14th June,
2004
(seen 4th June : Vue, Leicester : press show - Cinema
Days event)
by Neil
Young
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