Good, but not sure if I would call it great

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2005)

I haven't seen too many of the Coen brothers' films, in fact, the only ones I've seen apart from this one are Intolerable Cruelty and The Man Who Wasn't There. This one didn't hold my attention like The Man Who Wasn't There and it didn't make me laugh as often as Intolerable Cruelty. It was quite funny at some points, no doubt about that, and often it was far more funny than most other comedies... but too many of the jokes seemed to be repeated over and over. The pregnant lady eating, the locals saying 'yah', William H. Macy's character stuttering or throwing a fit... I don't know, it seemed like the Coen's couldn't think of enough good jokes, so they just repeated those they had over and over. Some of the jokes are insanely funny, though. Most of these come from Steve Buscemi. Just about every scene he's in, he steals the show. When he's not on screen, you're usually somewhat bored. One thing I also found myself getting a bit annoyed over the things left unresolved, and the scenes that seemed pointless. There were several characters in the film that could easily have been written out with no change to the overall product, apart from making it move faster. The plot is good, original and full of clever twists. The pacing is somewhat good, but too much of the film is boring. Like I said, Buscemi saves every scene he's in, but it's often boring in scenes not involving him. The acting is good, for the most part. Frances McDormand gives a great performance. The rest of the leads are all credible. The characters are well-written and credible. The humor is good, and at times great. A pretty good Coen brothers' film that could have been better. Too slow-moving and repetitive for my tastes, but definitely worth a watch, especially for fans of Steve Buscemi. I recommend it to fans of the Coen's, Steve Buscemi and the other principal actors. 8/10