Sincerely delightful Coen Brothers, playfulness retained

Rating: Null/10 (19 April 2014)

The title may be a red herring conjuring up images of Charlie Kaufman's "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind". Nothing of the sort, ILD (sounds like a drug, I know) is simplicity personified. The suggestive title is merely the title of an album, a pathetically unsuccessful album unfortunately, recorded by the titular folk musician. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a fictional character, albeit somewhat modelled after Dave Van Ronk, a pre-Dylan era Greenish Village regular. That Davis might have turned out to be a Dylan is faintly hinted but never suggested, as we become witness to his mundane life during a week, at the end of which it remains exactly as mundane. Maybe even the word "life" is a glorification, and one other word suggested in the dialogue fits better: "existence". Davis, despite his obvious talents, is in a sad state of not even possessing a coat that can keep him warm during the Manhattan winter, and drifts from couch to couch where he sleeps, at the homes of friends and sometimes even fellow musicians he has just met. The wonder-worker directors, however, have no problems making the audience root for this not-quite-appealing figure. Iassc's simple honesty in interpreting the character deserves equal credit.
One very important aspect of this movie, as can be readily surmised, is the singing. Isaac is nowhere near to matching the status of, say, Joaquin Phoenix who played Johnny Cash. He played Joseph in The Nativity Story (2006) but from my recollection, it could have been anybody. But musically he comes with Juilliard School credentials while his guitar virtuosity, beautiful tenor voice and soulful lyric delivery speak for themselves. While there are many singing roles, the star power comes with two in particular. Justin Timberlake has been a celebrated singer long before he truly launched his acting career playing the flamboyant Sean Parker in "Social network" (2011). If you have seen Carey Mulligan in "Shame" (2011) you know how well she can sing. The two play a singing couple who shelter Davis from time to time (the relationship is actually a little more complicated but there is no need to dwell on it). The two of them in the movie perform in Peter-Paul-Mary style (Davis is not the third making up the trio) "500 Miles" in which Mulligan harmonizes so beautifully.
While ILD is among the Coen Brothers' films about the most low-key and unassuming, their wit and humor populate the dialogue throughout. There is also a one-hundred-per-cent-Coen sequence, in the form of a highway movie when Davis travels in car-pool with two weird characters from New York to Chicago. One of them is played by John Goodman. I needn't say more.
Watching ILD will leave you in a strange mood that is a mixture of pleasure, melancholy, sadness, resignation, disillusion as well as hope. Above all, there is the sheer joy of sublime folk music. This movie won the Cannes Grand Prize of the Jury for good reasons.