F--- it. Let's go bowling.

Rating: 8/10 (1 March 2006)

The Coen Brothers indulge us into the lives of the seemingly humdrum, yet intricately fascinating, lives of 70s enthusiast Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski and his Vietnam-scarred, sociopathic friend Walter Sobchak. There is no point. There is a very complicated, and in the end quite anti-climactic story. What there is ,however, is more inventive charm than a circus show put on by David Lynch. Not to mention loads, and loads, and LOADS of laughs. I LOVED it. And so will you.
Jeff Bridges plays The Dude, or his Dudeness, or El Duderino "If you're not into the whole brevity thing." We are treated at first to the site of our protagonist being given a rather unpleasant "gift" by two goons sent to recover some sort of payment. As it turns out, they have the wrong man. Soon the dude finds himself entangled in a web of lies, as he attempts to find out who the money came from, and why they owe it. There are many plot twists along the way, which I won't ruin, although it's futile to think this film is about plot.
This is perhaps the Coen Brothers' most creative work to date. Even their wildly abnormal works like Raising Arizona have been matched for delightful weirdness, in the form of The Dude's various trip-out dream sequences. This being a Coen's film there is no such thing as a small part. Check out John Turturro's wild cameo as malodorous Paedophile-cum bowling deity Jesus Quintana. Or Sam Elliot as the film's bookending cowboy narrator. He sums the film up brilliantly two minutes in when, as our narrator, he says "Maybe I just lost my trail of thought. Maybe...
After viewing "The Big Lebowski" I was convinced that Jeff Bridges' sole existence on earth was to play The Dude. He is just perfect as the man who seems to get through all the destruction in his life with an apathetic retort of dowdy-hippydom. In a demented way it's what makes him so tranquilly admirable. John Goodman matches The Dude's bathos with psychotic blunder, and Steve Buscemi's Donnie is a rare Buscemi treat of cluelessness.
Despite it's convolutions The Big Lebowski never feels unrewarding in its Rubik's-cube plotting. Whereas earlier works like the ambitious Miller's Crossing (1992) were flawed on basic storytelling levels, here we are treated to the demented worlds first, and story second. The denouement is somewhat of an anti-climax but by that point you are so far into the world of deadbeat optimism that you won't be disappointed. In fact, the indifference to it's own crescendo makes for a very fitting finale. In the end, it's not the destination the counts, it's the ride. And what a ride. I don't think Joel and Ethan have written a script with better lines, nor do I think they've ever had a better cast. This is a film without meaning, but loads of heart. And white Russians too.