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REVIEW: The filmmaking brothers tacklecomedy in ‘The Big Lebowski’ but forget toinclude anything funny.By HENRY SHKHANThe Orange County RegisterFor all the surface eccentricities of their films, writer-director Joel and writer-pro-ducer Ethan Coen are actually formulaic filmmakers. Essentially, they take a genre situation and either play it out to a logical absurdity (as they did with the violence in “Miiler’s Crossing”) or violate genre rules by inserting a wild card, usually in the form of an idiot (as in “Fargo”).They further yuck things up with supporting galleries of outrageous caricatures who, in general, serve as objects of the filmmakers’ derision. If these caricatures can, on the one hand, be aspiring artists (to mock all artistic ambition), or, on the other hand, working or middle class (to mock nearly everyone else), so much the better.“The Big Lebowski” is part of the Coens’ wild-card brigade, a send-up of a Raymond Chandler or Ross McDonald-style murder mystery, with the traditionallynoble private eye extracted and an aging pothead inserted in his place. Realizing that typical pot-head passivity is an unlikely spur to investigatory action, the Coens have given him a buddy, a semideranged firearms-loving Vietnam vet who, whenever he’s needed, spurs things on with some blundering intervention.TO bring these unlikely buddies together, the Coens have further contrived a bowling team for them to be cm, a device that gives them plenty of time to snicker at people in various stages of un-hipness.And there you have it. If it fminiii uke a fairly unpleasantarrangement, it is, one made even more so by the lack of satisfactory jokes. “Lebowski is, as it turns out, a comedy, yet Joel and Ethan Coen, so adept at sneering at the shortcomings ofegMtMMtaii'The Big lebowski'► Stars: Jeff Bridges, John Good* man, Julianne Moore► Bahind tha scanas: Directed by Joel Coen; written by Joel and Ethan Coen; produced by Ethan Coen► Maying: Opens today throughout Orange County► Rating: R for pervasive strong language, drug content, sexuality and brief violence► Gracia: C-► Running tima: 1 hour, 58 minutes► You might iika it if: You liked Fargo.rrthing funny in the movie. Of course, this just may be their idea of yet another laugh at the audience’s expense.About the only attractive element in the movie comes courtesy of Jeff Bridges, who plays the lead. One of the most physically adept actors of his generation, Bridges emphatically inhabits the slouching body of The Dude,the sobriquet he prefers over hisfgiven name, Jeff Lebowski. It’s that name that gets him in trouble when two toughs break into his apartment, beat him up and urinate on his rug, all the time telling him to pay up.As it turns out, they’ve mixed him up with another Lebowski, this one a Pasadena millionaire (David Huddleston), whom The Dude visits with the intention of getting his rug replaced.Instead, he finds himself drawn into the apparent kidnapping of the other Lebowski’s young wife, Bunny (Tara Reid). Hired to drop off the ransom money, he brings buddy Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), the conspiratoriallynam vet, along for companionship. Unfortunately, Walter inkeepingthrowing out a satchel of his dirtyunderwear in its place, a turn of events that, in its hard-to-believeway, sets off a series of double-crosses and coincidences that make up the plot.Along the way, The Dude has todeal with the other Lebowski’s daughter, Maude (Julianne Moore), an ultra-hip artist with a strange and completely inexplicable accent and a foppish friend(David Thewlis); a gang ofEwn^ipfcoeaijp!- the rWWMatsFANTASY: The Dude (Jeff Bridges) has a dream that includes Maude (Julianne Moore) as a goddessBOWLING BUDDIES: Teammates Dor (Steve Buscemi, left) and Walter (JohnGoodman) nsxen to me coasting of a rival bowler in 'The Big Lebowski.' Above, SamElliott is a mysterious stranger.(Peter Stormare, Flea, Torsten Voges); a mob-connected por-nographer, Jack Treebom (Ben Gazzara) who hired the originalBridges is pretty good at it, giving The Dude a kind of sleepynobility in his dedication to long'Goodthugs; and the rich Lebowski’s maw secretary, Brandt (Philip Seymour Hoffman). While allthis is going on, The Dude is ingoingvolved in a major bowling tournament with his teammates Walter and Donny (Steve Buscemi)This is obviously acast, and most of the film’s payability stems from how much each actor is able, or willing, tohginqpta Aris,qlHW*er..,gone, if dubious, values man does all right at times, though it’s a battle, and Buscemi is as likable as always. Moore definitely loses the humanizing game, though it’s not clear she’s in it to win in the first place. The most offensive performance though, comes from John Turturro who employs the worst kind of ethnic stereotyping in his portrayal of a sex-criminal-turped-bowlipg-cbampIt’s odd for the Coens to make fun of The Dude’s marijuana-induced haziness. It’s true that their movies are often artfully made. Like most of their efforts, “The Big Lebowski” is lighted with terrific care; cinematographer Roger Deakins, working with the Coens for the fourth time, has helped them create a film that is always visually striking. But like the rest of their films, it doesn’t amount to more than a goof, of the kind the tikes of The Dude are best placed to• I rf'ta la Pi • * rl'I \*enjoy.* 1 '•!r-| T, t ( • • '* (• I
Newspaper Details
Santa Ana Orange County Register
Santa Ana, California, US
Fri, Mar 06, 1998
Page 160
Full Page
Clipped by
Rotten T.
USA 13 Jan 2023
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