Relaxed spoof with charm.

Rating: 6/10 (23 September 2007)

Something about an aging hippie called "The Dude" who is hired to find a woman who's kidnapping was faked and who was supposed to be ransomed with fake money, but none of that has anything to do with the film, which makes fun of just about everything, fake or genuine.
Among the targets of the Coen brothers' jibes, I was able to identify political correctness, movies about private investigators, Busby Berkley, Njinsky, the psychedelic subculture, pornography, celebrity, the ritual solemnity of funerals, sage old Westerners (cf., Curly in "City Slickers"), the military mentality, the violent gangs of terrorists with German accents that insist on turning up in action movies, hippies, and Malibu.
The acting is just good enough, with Jeff Bridges and John Goodman fitting nicely into their roles. Here's an example of some wit from the dialog. Bridges is a private investigator. He finds his car being broken into by a stranger, pulls the man out, and threatens him. Wait! the other guy shouts. He's a private investigator too, just like Bridges, "a brother Shamus." "Brother Seamus? Like an Irish Monk?"
There's a lot of malice in this film but it's undercut by a gentle, easy-going presentation that embodies a certain off-kilter charm and is more likely to lead to smiles than either outright laughter or self-righteous resentment. I forgive it its occasional misdirection.
It's not a masterpiece but it's certainly an original piece of work, and it probably ought to be seen for that reason alone, if not for any other. The MBA committees that are currently grinding out the Supersonicburgers in Hollywood should be the first in line. They need the lesson.