Living in the Past

Rating: 9/10 (29 March 2008)

The Dude is content to let life go by if can bowl once a week, get stoned and sit in his bathtub surrounded by candles. This meditative deadbeat existence is suddenly thrown into disarray however when a couple of thug debt collectors break into his pad, shove his head in the toilet and urinate on his rug. It turns out he is a victim of mistaken identity. At the urging of his semi-psycho bowling partner Walter (he pulls out a 45 to settle an argument over two pins)Dude seeks recompense from the intended Lebowski, a well heeled millionaire with a mansion and a teenage wife who may have been kidnapped by German nihilists.
Jeff Bridges is a perfect fit as The Dude inhabiting the mannerisms and style as well as displaying the contented munchies developed gut of a lifetime passive resister still living the summer of love. In perfect counterbalance is fellow kegler and ex Viet vet Walter who is also living in the past but at Tet. By share force of personality John Goodman's Walter occupies center stage as much as Dude. Shadowing wispily in the background the timid Donny (Steve Buscemi)rounds out the unlikely trio. In a bowling tournament sub-plot opponent John Turturro as Jesus is over the top hilarious as he baits Walter and The Dude. Philip Seymour Hoffman as millionaire Lebowski's obsequious assistant also registers in a brief role.
Like its protagonist The Big Lebowski is a lovable shaggy dog of a movie whose layed back style purposely and with hilarious results undermines the seriousness and suspense of the kidnapping and amputation that drive the plot. Not since the late Pro Bowler Ray Bluth's unique bowling style has the game been presented in such an unorthodox way. Taking the mundane washed out color setting of a bowling alley (including the parking lot) the brothers Coen create a surreal dream in which eras and genres collide as they borrow from and update classics with their own visual flare. From the bowlers montage over the credits to Busby Berkeley musical numbers, Jesus's entrance and the out of sync conversations between the team the Coens deftly utilize the alley setting, fully realizing it's ignored potential of pop art and surrealism.
The convoluted plot might suggest some Big Sleep and the anachronistic Dude might have a resemblance to Gould's Long Goodbye Marlowe but the style and presentation are pure Coen in three hundred game form.