A darkly humorous noir with two of cinema's biggest losers - 91%

Rating: 9/10 (28 October 2008)

Films by the Coen brothers I often find a little intimidating. Everyone agrees that they're not for a mainstream audience but you certainly need your wits about you - basically they are films for connoisseurs and as much as I enjoy my movies, I've always considered myself to be a casual movie-goer. It has taken me a long time to get around to watch this movie - as it did with "Fargo" - but as with their other movies, I enjoyed this immensely. It is genuinely as interesting as it is amusing, littered with faultless performances and a classic film-noir style plot that twists and turns around the quote-happy dialogue.
Jeff Bridges plays Jeff Lebowski, a pot-smoking slacker living in LA and preferring to go by the name of The Dude. Spending his time bowling with his buddies Walter (John Goodman) and Donnie (Steve Buscemi), The Dude is the victim of a vicious beating by two clueless goons who mistake him for Jeffrey Lebowski, the millionaire. Seeking compensation for his ruined rug, The Dude quickly finds himself drawn into a complex kidnapping case and begins to find himself out of his depth. With an ever-growing list of people seemingly intent of manipulating him to their will, The Dude finds his laid-back attitude sorely tested as well as his friendship with the quick-to-anger Walter.
While my suspicions that this film's plot would be complicated were right, at no point did I find my attention wandering or my understanding of the story diminished. This is story-telling on an epic scale, reminiscent of classic noir movies like "The Big Sleep" and "Double Indemnity". But there is a black-as-night streak of humour running throughout the film, mainly from Goodman as the borderline psychotic Vietnam veteran, that's brilliantly pitched. With dynamite performances throughout the cast, it's difficult to pick out any one actor but Bridges rightly deserves the plaudits as he is utterly convincing and oddly lovable as the bearded waster bumbling his way through the film with a child-like naivety. The only possible downside that I can think of is that it does need multiple viewings to get the most out of it and as I've already said, you definitely need to give the plot your full attention.
"The Big Lebowski" could arguably by described as the ultimate "stoner" movie but seeing as that brings to mind stuff like "Dude, Where's My Car?" and "Harold & Kumar Get The Munchies", that is doing this movie a grave injustice. This is a movie with real depth and charm - a classic detective story with the most unlikely sleuth imaginable. It may be complex and "high-brow" but don't let that put you off as this is one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen for a long time - it's much lighter than their other efforts I've seen like "Fargo" which was quite dark. It actually reminded me of "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" but this is much funnier and more entertaining than that - Bridges and Goodman are a much better pairing than Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer. Forget any trepidation you may have - this is the Coen's at their absolute best and even if you're a casual movie goer, you owe it to yourself to watch "The Big Lebowski". Man...