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Rating:
Probably with this review I will attract more than a few criticisms, but I cannot hide the truth: even though it is considered one of the lowest points of the Coen brothers' career by many, I actually like this film! I find every frame extremely Coenesque and consistent with the directors' career (unlike Intolerable Cruelty which is indeed an indelible stain). Originally, the film was supposed to be directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, the director of photography for the duo's first three movies (with the Coen brothers only as screenwriters), but they were later hired as directors as well. It's also the first film to see the two brothers collaborate both in directing and production.
Rather than a simple remake of The Ladykillers from 1955 (directed by Alexander Mackendrick, with Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers), the film is a (postmodern) reinterpretation that shifts the story from the British atmosphere of the '50s to the much warmer Mississippi of the mid '90s and partially modifies the plot.
The African-American lady Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall), a deeply religious widow, rents a room in her house to Professor Goldthwaite Hagginson Dorr (Tom Hanks), a cultured and affable professor of dead languages, lover of classical music. The professor asks to use the basement to rehearse with his band Renaissance music, but in reality, the four ensemble members are dangerous criminals; in addition to the professor, the band includes Gawain (Marlon Wayans), a rebellious black hooligan, a silent and tobacco-addicted Vietnamese general, Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons), an explosives expert with irritable bowels, and Lump, a half-witted football player. The plan is to conduct a heist at the nearby casino, but the old lady will be a tough nut for them all to crack.
This black comedy closes the lighter period of the duo's career, which had almost entirely characterized the first part of the previous decade. More than any previous film, the strongest comparison is surely with O Brother, Where Art Thou? with which it shares its setting and the choice of soundtrack, once again entrusted to T-Bone Burnett: if in the previous collaboration the soundtrack was packed with bluegrass and folk, in Ladykillers we have a parallel between the black music of the past (gospel) and the present (hip hop).
Another aspect that unites the two films is definitely the carefree and amused tone with which the directors shoot the film: murders and thefts do not frighten but rather amuse, the five criminals find themselves mixed up in a series of grotesque situations (tea with the old lady's church friends) and even the characterizations themselves are extremely grotesque and caricatured.
The underlying theme (always present and deep, but more in the background than in other films) is the one dearest to the duo, the decay of modern society, and for the first time there is also a sting towards religion when it is approached in an excessively religious and bigoted way, with Ms. Munson living according to the dictates of the Bible and not accepting anything not mentioned in the Holy Scriptures.
The film has a cyclical structure, it opens and ends with the same scene, a choice that represents the cyclicality of life and destiny; the negative actions in the film cancel each other out (thanks to Fate or divine intervention, depending on what one believes), because greed leads to nothing positive, and the pre-existing balance is restored, with the hearse accompanying the characters represented by a barge full of garbage, another brilliant symbol of decay and corruption.
Sure, it's not one of the duo's career peaks, but it's not a disgrace as I've heard it described either. A simple and enjoyable comedy (the excellent and warm photography and soulful soundtrack are extremely relaxing, also because the film flows as slowly as the Mississippi river), with humor that is at times subtle, at times vulgar, with no dead spots. Worth reevaluating.
SCORE = 7.5
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