Ready to Rent Ready to Rent (September 17, 2004)

The Ladykillers

Touchstone Home Video VHS & DVD

1 hr 44 mins

Directors: Ethan & Joel Coen

One of the strangest films of 2004, "The Ladykillers," the Coen brothers' remake of the 1955 British comedy, stitches together the original film's dry British wit with modern American crudeness for a confusing Frankenstein-like escapade. In fact, the film plays like an old "Monkees" episode devoted to the southern Gothic-chic - filled with bluegrass and Gospel music, strange slapstick and appropriate references to Poe. "The Ladykillers," however, is such a confusing exercise, neither outright comedy nor successful sly observation of a world refusing to change, that it topples under its own weight of self-bemusement, too smart (or dumb) to be truly funny. It's also a siren that signals an alarming downward trend for the Coen brothers, two of the cleverest filmmakers working today.

The film's upside is Tom Hanks' very funny turn as the dastardly Professor GH Dorr, a bucktoothed, linen-clad dandy who is fond of quoting Poe's "The Raven" and giving the appearance of being a genteel know-it-all. Dorr arrives at the door of older matron Marva Munson (a very cute Irma P. Hall, who won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival), whose adjustment to the modern world has been so rocky that she makes regular visits to the local sheriff's office to complain of the neighbor's "hip-itty-hop" music at all hours. Dorr is making inquiries about Ms. Munson's room for rent and is especially interested in the fruit cellar where he and his "friends" plan to practice their music of the renaissance, finding the cellar's dank acoustics to his liking. GH and his cohorts are not, however, who they claim to be: They are criminal masterminds who are tunneling through Ms. Munson's cellar wall, bent on pillaging the neighboring casino. The heist (improbable unto itself) is constantly being thwarted by the good Ms. Munson, whose suspicions are starting to run high after a freak accident involving dynamite in the basement and an impromptu invitation for the men to play for her women's circle. It is evident, especially in the third act of the film, that Poe and slapstick comedy truly make strange bedfellows.

I can tell you first what does not work in "The Ladykillers" and that is the overly crass, stereotyped cop-out of Marlon Wayans' character Gawain MacSam, who was written in Simple Street Caricature 101. I never have a problem with language in a film if it seems that it is a natural extension of its character, but Wayans' Gawain is written with a type of schoolboy one-upmanship, cursing for no reason other than to give his character a distinguishing mark that only manages to distract. The other huge problem with the film is its uneven tone, mixing low-brow, sitcom-like antics with the Coen's sly sensibilities. I not only expect more from them, but demand it as well. There are some amusing passages and personages, especially J.K. Simmons' Garth Pancake, whose logical, straight-man ramblings about the gang's increasing dilemmas are the needed spark. What the Coens have crafted, however, is a feel-bad film with little energy and no sense of direction that takes place either in the dark or in a cellar, making for a dreary and claustrophobic outing. -Joe Ramirez

E-mail a friend a link to this story.