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In a stupid misunderstanding, they were after his namesake, Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston), the millionaire husband of Bunny Lebowski (Tara Reid). Well, this won't do at all; you can't just piss on a man's rug and expect him to forget about it! Thus, to a backdrop of the regional bowling tournament, the Dude gets caught up in Lebowski's high-finance dealings and the troubles that emerge when Bunny gets kidnapped. As if it wasn't traumatic enough facing up to Jesus Quintana (John Turturro), an in-your-face lane demon, the Dude has to deal with conceptual artist Maude Lebowski (Julianne Moore). These are not your ordinary working folk.
Over the course of more than a decade, since Blood Simple, the Coen brothers have built up an enviable reputation. Adored, maybe even revered, by a devoted audience, their films make a profit without shattering box-office records. Professionally, critics tend to love the breadth of their cinematic knowledge while fellow artists appreciate their independence. The Big Lebowski is no exception, it's the brothers doing exactly what they want to; if you haven't become fond of the earlier films, their latest effort won't lead to a miraculous conversion. For those in the know, however, you'll get a buzz from their goulash of wild ideas, sizzling dialogue and technical invention. The whole doesn't measure up to Fargo but this is an assured creation nonetheless.
When it comes to the writing of Ethan and Joel Coen, the watchword is surprise, a desire to twist dictionary definitions into pretzel shapes. The booby-trap with such resolutely non-Hollywood diction is that your cast must be rather off-centre themselves; they've got to harness the spirit of the enterprise. Fortunately Bridges has this ability in torrents, having spent 30 years starring in everything from Tron to The Last Picture Show. His unconcerned lethargy, amiability and inertia roll through the story with minimal deviation; The Big Lebowski puts obstacles into the Dude's path, he waits for someone else to move them. In lunatic contrast, Goodman is utterly unhinged, plagued by Vietnam and prone to out-of-place violence. His overly physical presence is vulnerably threatening.
What frustrates about The Big Lebowski is that it wastes so many cast members, giving them less than nothing to do. Some of the characters are great but most are under-powered and included for no Earthly reason. It's almost insulting. Buscemi, used so memorably in a thousand and one low-budget flicks, has a pointless and thankless existence as the Dude's bowling partner. Gazzara, Reid and Moore manage to scrape together a few scenes of interest between them, but the material here is hardly stretching. Still, at least Turturro is both unrecognisable and brilliant.
Still, The Big Lebowski is stupendously imaginative, perhaps too much so, and extremely amusing. Joel Coen positively encourages the film to head off on all sorts of tangents, side-tracks and diversions; most of these crazy paths fail to pan out, intentionally it seems, but for the most part that doesn't matter. It's only when the weight of avenues travelled becomes too much, removing all hope of coherency, that the film collapses. A stronger ending might have rescued the situation but that option isn't available on this model.
Thus, knowing what the Coen brothers are capable of, this isn't a very good movie. The Big Lebowski is chockfull of individually impressive elements but they fit together like the fragments of a broken eggshell. Roger Deakins' photography helps, especially in a quite marvellous sequence shot from the interior of a bowling ball, but visual and intellectual brilliance isn't enough. The film is insane, surreal and fun but it's also piecemeal, uneven and unsatisfying.
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