It's hard to tell whether the amazing transformation of Billy Bob Thornton into the painfully innocuous Ed Crane in The Man Who Wasn't There should be attributed to Thornton's immense talent or the precise direction of Joel Coen. It's a toss-up, but in the end, it doesn't matter. Only the Coens-Thornton three-punch-combo could create a film about a man to whom no one pays attention and yet carry the film despite that character's lack of presence.
The Man Who Wasn't There has the perfect combination of drama, mystery and comedy. At the nucleus of a dense web of twists and subplots is Ed Crane, a quiet pushover, who is surrounded by people that talk a lot but really have nothing to say. When the opportunity arises to, of all things, invest in dry cleaning, Crane seizes it by blackmailing his wife's (Frances McDormand) lover Dave (James Gandolfini) for the startup funds. Only, his simple scheme goes awry when Crane ends up killing Dave. But this is not a Falling Down-white-guy-in-a-midlife-crisis-on-a-murdering-spree film. Crane stumbles upon the murder like he has stumbled upon everything else in his life.
But despite the engaging plot, it's the cinematography that makes the film. The mere fact that The Man Who Wasn't There was filmed in color, and only later was transferred to black and white, makes the Coen brothers' rich use of depth and shadows that much more impressive.
