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Maybe Ethan and Joel Coen are just too erudite for their own good, in terms of what other people can bear? After all, this particular film is based upon Homer's epic poem The Odyssey, enough to surely make it unapproachable? Well, no. If this fact wasn't spelt out at the beginning, most folk would never make the connection. You certainly don't need to know anything about Homer to enjoy O Brother, Where Art Thou? and during the show you sure don't have time to ponder the similarities. As ever, the script writing is superbly balanced, efficiently hilarious, referential without being obvious and generally perceptive of human self-interest. It must be fun to work with such rich material.
Of course, it's true to say that the Coen's appear to favour certain actors, including them on a more-or-less continuous basis. John Turturro (coming close to being unrecognisable) returns here to play inbred Pete Hogwallop, while John Goodman lives up to his character's name, Big Dan Teague. Maybe the Coen's are seen to be perpetuating a clique, from which outsiders are actively excluded? Well, how come George Clooney, as Everett Ulysses McGill, gets the central role in O Brother, Where Art Thou? then? Could a more photogenic star have been selected? No, with Tim Blake Nelson along for the ride as self-effacing (and ugly!) Delmar O'Donnel, this theory hardly seems tenable. Given the results, surely cast members are picked purely on the basis of ability?
Still, none of these rebuttals prevent the Coen's from ploughing a furrow idiosyncratic, one that simply lacks wide appeal. This, as an explanation, at least has the virtue of believability. Each and every Coen production is fundamentally different from the last, whether in subject matter, style or genre. This is indeed the only way in which the brothers are formulaic! They appear to relish the challenge and rely upon us, the audience, to keep pace. A rewarding approach for sure since O Brother, Where Art Thou? is an exceptionally satisfying film. It takes a little while to warm up but from there on in the trajectory is ever skywards.
This is a great tale of men seeking one reward, yet through circumstance discovering one both entirely different and of far greater import. The plot is masterful, a sequence of linked episodes drawing the group ever further into their ordeal; to an endpoint obscured from all but the blind seer (Lee Weaver). Bits and pieces (characters, connections and hints) move in and out of focus, often looking inconsequential and yet you find all of these ingredients essential in the final product. It's remarkable to realise how even the classical Siren's fail to look out-of-place in this Depression era, a testament to Joel Coen's directorial skill. Overall, the movie betrays an enviable completeness of vision and who cares whether the parent of this is Homer or a Coen; we're still the beneficiaries.
However, and maybe this is the crucial point, Coen productions are intensely individualistic affairs; they tend to produce extreme audience reactions. So, perhaps you'll appreciate the tangential leanings of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, its sparks of brilliance and dramatic variety, or maybe you won't. It could be that the Coen brothers are simply too superficial, too wilful for your tastes (and let's be honest, they're not perfect) to the extent that their work repels you. Well, that's nothing to be ashamed of. But, if you're not swayed by T-Bone Burnett's gyrating bluegrass music or entranced by Roger Deakins' bleached, wheat-crop photography then you might as well start asking for a doctor -- you may not have a pulse!
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