subtitles needed

Rating: 3/10 (30 December 2009)

Saw this yesterday on a Sky channel. What with Christmas etc., not much to watch on television. I knew nothing about it except it was well-known and by the Coen brothers - whose Burn after Reading I thought the most amusing film in years. At first all went well, but as matters progressed I found that the heavy Texas accent and mumbled speech were almost completely incomprehensible - although I got the picture anyway. It did however become more and more annoying. I am an interpreter and well used to understanding English (and variants) spoken in many different accents. This was too much! Of course, it didn't really matter what anybody said (was this one of the messages of the film?), since it was entirely predictable...apart from the little scene where the garage owner must make a call on a coin - the subsequent dialogue showed that someone has been reading their Beckett (top of the class!!). All quite tedious - though I must confess to having watched to the ponderous end - where the sheriff tells his girlfriend his entirely dreary dream about his father. One of the most interesting points was how they got a shirt that perfectly matched the colour of her very unusual blue eyes!!