The Coen's L.A.

Rating: Null/10 (9 December 2003)

I guess this is primarily the Coen's tribute to the City of Angels. The plot is complicated and very much like a Raymond Chandler novel - it is interesting to compare The Big Lebowski with Edward Dmytryk's version of Farewell, My Lovely, titled Murder, My Sweet. The dude is the Philip Marlowe of our days (or the days of the first Gulf War).
Jeff Bridges proves once again that he is an extremely versatile actor. I like the way he moves as Lebowski, reminds me of an overgrown baby. John Goodman makes once more clear that big bears are not always huggable. The rest of the cast turns up sporadically and is rather part of the general scenery  all the people seem to be phonies except bowling buddy Donny (fashioned after unforgettable Elisha Cook jr., I guess) who is asked to shut up whenever he opens his mouth and wants to get in the picture. The police chief of Malibu and the taxi driver who drives Lebowski home after his encounter with that chief seem to reflect the true life behaviour of people the Coens encountered in Southern California. The scene of the chief throwing an empty mug at Lebowski's head has an uneasy realism that makes it the most brutal of the whole movie.