"O Brother, Where Art Thou?" -- the new film from the Coen brothers -- is a fantastic comedy with elements of true genius. The Coen brothers have made a name for themselves with their previous movies, which include "Fargo" and "Raising Arizona," and "Brother" is likely to only increase their already impressive stature in Hollywood.
"Brother" is the story of Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), a slimy chain-gang member with a taste for Dapper Dan hair pomade. Everett escapes from the chain-gang life along with his two partners Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson), who seem to only be his partners because they are chained to him at the ankles.
The whole reason for their escape is that the treasure that Everett stole from an armored car and hid in Arktabutta valley will be under water in a mere four days when the government builds a dam and floods the valley.
While on one level "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" is a tale about three 1930s chain-gang escapees, it is actually the story of Odysseus. The Coen brothers are extremely up-front about this fact. Before the film starts, an announcement states that it is based on the Odyssey, and Homer is even given a spot for writing in the film's credits.
The fact that the Coen brothers even attempted to do a more modern remake of the classic story of Odysseus is impressive in and of itself. However, that they succeed as well as they did shows just how great these two men are as filmmakers.
The Odyssey story line is not followed literally in the movie, which is good because not only are there a number of encounters that would have been difficult to translate to the 1930s setting, but it would have made for a film that lasted hours and hours.The famous adventures are represented, however, including the Lotus-Eaters, the Sirens and a run-in with the Cyclops as played by John Goodman.
There have been a lot of films in which Goodman plays the big, cuddly guy, but never before have I seen him play an evil role. And believe me, he's evil. This high quality of acting extends to rest of the cast in general as well.
The fact that the Coens do not follow the Odyssey exactly leaves the audience in suspense. At the same time, it is fun to try and match up the things the convicts do on-screen to any memories one may have of Odysseus' ancient adventures. So although an old plot is used, the Coens transform it into something wholly new and original for the purposes of their film.
Acting plays at least as much of a part in a movie's success as does the writing, so it is lucky for the Coens that they got the cast they did. Every person in this film from George Clooney on down to the Midget, who has only one line, is absolutely amazing. Not only do they perform extremely well, but just the way they look adds to the atmosphere and speaks of the deep South.Clooney, in the starring role is obviously the largest presence on-screen. Although he has a haze hanging over his acting career from the days of being ER's main beefcake, Clooney is apparently an amazing actor. In "Brother" he convincingly changes his patterns of speech and tone of voice so that one does not even notice that it is actually Clooney under all of that Dapper Dan hair pomade.
As good as George Clooney is, the secondary characters are even better. Tim Blake Nelson, who I've never heard of before, plays Delmar -- a lovable yet drooling idiot. I don't think Nelson's mouth closes one time during the entire course of the film. Acting stupidly is extremely difficult, but he manages to pull it off with panache while not becoming irritating. John Turturro is just terrifying as Pete, the third of Everett's trio of convicts. He is by turns, arrogant, stupid, crafty and vaguely, even disturbingly, inbred.
To sum up, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" is a brilliant movie based on one of the world's most timeless works of literature. The acting is superb, the writing is genius and the seven dollars spent is absolutely worth it for two surreal hours.
