Not the Coen Brothers' best

Rating: 5/10 (23 May 2008)

I am surprised by the amount of good press this movie has received, both in the media and on sites such as IMDb.com My wife and I rarely go to the the theater, so we were really looking forward to renting this DVD. We are both huge Coen Brothers fans and believe they are among the the best film makers currently working. This movie does possess many of the traits that we have come to love about Coen movies. The cinematography, acting, editing, pacing, sound work and soundtrack were all up to their normal excellence. Where this one fell flat for me was in the storytelling...which normally is a strong suit of the Coens. The movie started very, very well. In fact, through the first half of the film I was literally on the edge of my seat. The pacing was brisk and the plot was tight ... in other words exactly what we have come to expect. Then, between 1/2 and 2/3 way through the movie...my wife and I both lost the plot. It was as if we suddenly were wrenched from this great story into a place where what was happening did not follow from what had happened...and there seemed to be little desire by the filmmakers to create a logical line from A to B. We watched the movie again, and came to the same conclusion. In fact, we could pinpoint the moment this happened to the scene in the stairwell ( I will not go further as I prefer not to be a spoiler. ) Anyway, those are my 2 cents. A great movie for an hour or so...then it just all falls apart. Not a terrible movie, but no where near the Coens' normal quality in my opinion.