The greatest movie ever made about a rug

Rating: 9/10 (10 October 2004)

From the infamous Coen brothers, comes a movie so fresh and original that one must wonder what they were thinking when the concept for this film sparked.
The Big Lebowski revolves around the simple-looking yet wonderfully-acted character of "The Dude" Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), and due to a case of mistaken identity with another Jeffrey Lebowski, he becomes swept up in the story of family deception.
The story if the movie seems to be about extortion and conspiracy and kidnapping, but the reality of the movie exists on two different levels. There is the overly dramatic suspense story, and then there is the story of a deadbeat who just wants his rug back and to remove himself from all the confusion. The brilliance is that the movie treats the Dude's plight as the more important story, in the same process making a parody of the big story within the movie and a parody of dramatic plots in general. Everyone, even the Dude's best friend Wally, starts moving on this upper wavelength, and the Dude is the only one who brings the viewer back down to Earth.
The Dude himself is merely a complete loser, albeit one whose charisma has earned him a crown of respect among his own lower tier. He is swept up in the flow of this big conspiracy against his will and gets taken for a brutal ride, he gets beaten up, attacked by a marmet, has his rug peed on, and receives repeated abuses to his car, along with other things. The kidnapping plot becomes confusing and hard to follow, but it's not necessary to understand totally. The real treasure of the movie is watching the Dude's reactions to all the convoluted things happening around him.
The juxtaposition of the over-the-top drama of most of the characters and the simple-mindedness of a man who spends the entire movie in his pajamas and with a White Russian in his hand provides for countless memorable scenes and quotable dialogue. The movie is at its roots, always a comedy, but a smart one. Its downfall is that it has more "highly amusing" moments than it does "laugh out loud" moments.
Still, what it lacks in cheap laughs, it makes up for in beautiful cinematography. The musical score, the camera angles in the bowling alley especially, and most of all, the dream sequences that have to be seen for words cannot do them justice.
Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, and John Goodman all give fantastic performances. The characters are fun and memorable, and there's not much I can do else to describe the movie. Everyone owes it to themselves to see this movie at least once just to experience its unique taste.