The Big Lebowski

 

I am a huge fan of the Coen brothers and rate No Country for old men amongst my top ten all time films. I'm not sure how I managed to miss this film and had been looking forward to it. As genius as the Coen brothers can be, they can also make films that simply provoke the question "why?".  Burn After Reading, Hudsucker Proxy and Brother Where art thou among them. Sadly for me, this film joins that list.

This is not a plot driven film - it is character driven by Jeff Bridges' portrayal of the Little Lebowski - The Dude. The film is slapstick comedy with many inept characters. The constancy of Bridges' performance is the unifying thread that draws the film together. Julianne Moore delivers a trademark excellent and offbeat performance as a naked abstract painter - the daughter of the Big Lebowski.

Quite why this has become a cult classic I'm not sure. That a Church of the Latter Day Dude exists is as bizarre as the film itself and the phrase "The Dude Abides" sums up the religion the Dude's disciples follow. 

A major part of the film is set in a Bowling Alley -  The Dude's other activity - his main one being to lounge around drinking White Russians. An unemployed layabout, The Dude is never deflected from the course he sets himself despite a number of extreme and at times violent interventions against him and his possessions. He is not concerned with the detail of events that surround and impact him, but remains focussed on being The Dude.

The are good performances from John Goodman as Walter Sobchak and Steve Buscemi as Donny Kerabatsos as The Dude's friends and bowling partners. But the fanciful plot involving a porn king, his trophy wife and nihilist Germans is too fanciful to be fulfilling. The absurdism is of course intentional and a part of the Coen's storytelling art. I guess you either get it or you don't and on this occasion I didn't. I was looking forward to watching it and was disappointed in the end. I'll give it 5/10.