THE BIG LEBOWSKI [ENG]

by Joel & Ethan Coen

After two disappointing works like The Hudsucker Proxy and Fargo the Coens come back with this new film to the high levels customary in their first movies. No moralistic intent, no stumbling in easy commonplace, no denunciation, but sheer fun, fantasy flights and outstanding acting. The movie, whose plot is whimsical like the characters, is a series of tiny narrative fragments and comic sketches, interpolated with long oneiric sequences, proof of an extraordinary visual talent. These sequences look like the true centre of the movie, one would say the reason itself of their cinema, but also its major limit.

Jeff Bridges is great in his pothead part, a kind of character caught in its essence; John Goodman is even greater in his veteran role, for once a soldier loving war; the rest is hardly made of more than sketches.

In short, wholesome laughing galore. This was the task, and one can’t say they didn’t fulfil it. Or, better, if life is a bowling contest it’s undeniable that the Coens have had their STRIKE.

Boris Maccario