The Dude abides.

Rating: 10/10 (27 May 2000)

After the darkly surreal, snowswept landscapes of the Minnesota depicted in Fargo (1996), the Coen brothers have wisely opted for a different locale with The Big Lebowski. Set in Los Angeles (circa 1991 during the Persian Gulf War), this film tells a decidedly unconventional
tale about a man known as The Dude.
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) is a laid-back
kinda guy, an aging Hippie who spends his days drinking
White Russians, smoking pot, and bowling with his buddies. One day, this all changes when two thugs invade
his home, rough him up, and urinate on his rug. It seems
that they have The Dude confused with another Lebowski,
a rich millionaire whose young wife owes money all over
town.
Bummed at having his prized rug ruined, The Dude decides to contact the other Lebowski and in doing so becomes immersed in a very strange, convoluted plot that
involves nihilists, a kidnapping, Busby Berkley dream sequences, British performance artists, and bowling.
Sound a little strange? It's all par for the course with the
Coen brothers, a clever filmmaking duo that loves tweaking
existing genres to the point that they become something
very different and distinctly Coenesque.
This includes fully-realized characters, both major and
minor, that have their own unique habits and mannerisms.
Most films do not take the time to flesh out their respective
worlds or the characters that live in them but this is not the
case with the Coens.
The world that the Coens create in The Big Lebowski is
populated by a humourous and often bizarre collection of
characters that range from an obnoxiously narcissistic
bowler (John Turturro) to a feminist performance artist/painter of the British persuasion (Julianne Moore).
You would think that all of these wildly eccentric characters
would overshadow the main character, but they merely enhance the wonderful performance by Jeff Bridges, who is
the heart and soul of The Big Lebowski. He creates mannerisms and habits that flesh out his character perfectly. From the first time we see him, Bridges is The
Dude. And even though he is a down-and-out loser, there
is something undeniably likable about him, and this is due
in large part to Bridges' performance.
The Big Lebowski may not have the dramatic weight or substance of Fargo, but it has a distinctive charm uniquely
its own. Instead, the Coens have done what Robert Altman
did in the '70s with The Long Goodbye: use the hard-boiled
world of Raymond Chandler has a starting point to satirize
Los Angeles culture. Like Altman's film, The Big Lebowski
dispenses with conventional narrative in favour of atmosphere and colourful characters. The joy of this film is
in watching the entertaining diversions, subplots and minor
characters and how The Dude interacts with them all. You're not supposed to really care about what happens to
the convoluted storyline or how it is resolved. That is merely
window-dressing for the Coens to showcase this highly engaging world that they've created.