'The Man Who Wasn?t There? easily one of 2001?s best

"The Man Who Wasn't There"

Directed by: Joel Coen

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Fran-ces McDormand, James Gandolfini

Rated: R

Since their first feature film, 1984's "Blood Simple," the Coen Brothers have cranked out richly idiosyncratic films obviously made by people who love mo-vies. Their best work "Blood Simple," "Miller's Crossing," "Fargo" has had a film noir bent, a formula never more apparent than in their latest effort, "The Man Who Wasn't There."

Classic noir seldom has any real "good guys," but there are characters the audience roots for. That certainly holds true for the lead role of Ed Crane, the quiet barber played to perfection by Billy Bob Thornton, doing his best work since "Slingblade."

It's 1949 and Ed, to borrow a phrase, seems to be leading a life of quiet desperation.

A man of few words, Ed seems to be surrounded by people who prattle on endlessly, most notably his brother-in-law, who owns the barber shop. The Coens, who share writing credit on all of their films, have a knack for great dialogue, and much of it makes for some darkly humorous scenes.

The character names also are rich: There's the wig-adorned businessman Creighton Tolliver, a department store named Nirdlingers, a fast-talking lawyer named Freddy Riedenschneider, and a high school pianist called Birdy Abun-das. The Coens have imbued all the characters with stories as rich as their names.

Ed is fairly certain his wife, Doris (Frances McDormand, a mainstay of Coen films and the real-life Mrs. Joel Coen), is having an affair with her boss at Nirdlingers, the boorish Big Dave (James Gandolfini). Indeed the two barely try to hide the fact at all.

When Ed is approached by Creighton Tolliver (another Coen regular, Jon Polito) to get in on the ground floor of a new business venture, the dry cleaning business, Ed sees a chance to change his lot in life and decides to blackmail Big Dave, whose wife's family actually owns Nirdlingers.

Big Dave confides in, of all people, Ed, that he's being blackmailed. He doesn't give the name of his mistress, of course, but he's sure he knows who is trying to get the money. It seems some shady businessman hit him up about investing in this new industry called dry cleaning ...

The barber's act of extortion sets into motion a series of events that do change his life, as well as the lives of everyone else in the film, in ways one would expect from a film in the noir style.

What the Coens manage to do that the classic noir films like "Double Indem-nity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice" rarely attempted, is to inject a great deal of humor into their plot. Uneasy, dark humor to be sure, but funny nonetheless.

Another big plus for "The Man Who Wasn't There" is cinematographer Roger Deakins. Deakins has worked with the brothers before, as well as directing the photography on a number of classic, and classy-looking, movies like "Kundun," "The Secret Garden" and "The Shaw-shank Redemption." Much like Gordon Willis' work on "Manhattan," Deakins' beautifully executed work here is not so much "black-and-white," but myriad shades of gray.

Thornton, who provides the voice over as well as his deliberate, sparse dialogue is the only actor who could have played this role with such perfection. It's a haunting performance and does a great deal to make "The Man Who Wasn't There" one of the best films of the year.

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)