Big
Lebowski, The
Rating:
****/*****, or 8/10
Outrageously
zany, off-beat comedy the likes only the Coen Brothers can provide.
Life is tough for the pot smoking all-round slacker Jeffrey Lebowski,
more commonly referred to as “The Dude” (Jeff Bridges in one of
the most defining roles of his career). Sharing his last name with a
millionaire, he's victimized by thugs who mistake him for that rich man (who
owes them a debt), a situation which finds his beloved rug in ruin
after having been urinated upon by the perpetrators. When he visits his namesake to try
and get him to pay for its cleaning, he soon gets more than he
bargained for as he finds himself caught up in what appears to be a
kidnap of the wealthy man's trophy wife, but swiftly explodes into a
bizarre, inexplicable potpourri of events beyond anybody's control or
understanding, thanks to the involvement of a host of wacky, maniacal
and thoroughly enjoyable characters, ranging from feminist/nihilist
artists and pornographers to White Russians and generally random folk
annex narrators. Yet all The Dude asked for was a clean rug and an
opportunity to win the local bowling alley's competition he trained
so hard for with his two best buddies (John Goodman with severe anger
management problems and Steve Buscemi who can't take a hint when he's
asked to shut up). The Coens don't ask you to make sense of it all,
they just want you to roll with it (pun intended), as The Dude does himself.
Nevertheless, despite this absence of a clearly defined plot, or more
likely because of it, The Big Lebowski proves all kinds of
fun. The pair of directors used the same tactic a decade later with
Burn After Reading to similar results, proving them the
masters of this subgenre of 'nonsensicomedy' (for the record, I just
made that term up and I hope it catches on). In both cases they were
aided by an impressive cast of character actors and/or movie stars
who felt like doing something different for a change, in The Big
Lebowski's case including Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro,
Julianne Moore and Sam Elliott. Though the film was met with
moderately tempered critical reviews and disappointing box office
results back in 1998, time has proven the Coens right, as it has
since become a widely accepted cult classic with serious tendencies
towards an eventual, seemingly unavoidable shedding of the moniker
'cult'. When Burn After Reading came along in 2008, the
majority of both audience and critics finally understood this type of
film, and that movie did much, much better business accordingly.
Starring:
Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi
Directed
by Joel and Ethan Coen
USA/UK:
Polygram Filmed Entertainment, 1998
