Being a Coen Bros prod, this is only the intro to what will become a hilarious, anarchic runaround, involving nihilist kidnappers, a trophy wife with a low boredom threshold, a naked artist who flings paint from a flying trapese and a million bucks in a stolen car. The plot twists are too inventive to hang onto with any degree of safety. Life has become an eccentric extension of the bizarre and yet remains perfectly normal. Nothing phases The Dude, except when Walter takes matters into his own hands, resulting in nervousness, mutilation and damage. If Alice missed the turning to Wonderland, she might have landed up here and found things pretty much as she expected.
Bridges is a treat, shuffling through the debris in flip flops and surfer shorts.
Walter is a man waiting to win a war that hasn't been declared. Goodman lights his touch paper and advances. Julianne Moore plays the artist with an English accent, as if avant-garde is a brand name for erotic underwear. The script has lines that leap out and choke you, they're so funny, and the actors respond with exactly the right tone of intensity and bewilderment. Life, as the Coens know from experience, is neither what it seems, nor what you expect.