The Ladykillers
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 44 minutes
Directed by: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Starring:
Tom Hanks - Professor G.H. Dorr
Irma P. Hall - Marva Munson
Marlon Wayans - Gawain MacSam
J.K. Simmons - Garth Pancake
Tzi Ma - The General
Ryan Hurst - Lump Hudson
After the painfully disappointing misfire of last October’s Intolerable Cruelty, the Coen Brothers return in fine form with the remake of the 1955 Alec Guinness/Peter Sellers film The Ladykillers. The plot of a group of thieves posing as a musical band in an old woman’s house and the decision to kill the old woman when she finds out their crime remains the same, but that’s where the similarity ends. Whereas the original film focused more on the difficulty in killing the old woman, the Coens focus on developing the quirks of their characters and the preparation for the heist with the attempts to kill Old Mrs. Munson (Irma P. Hall) coming at the tail-end of the flick.
The five criminals in this flick consist of mastermind Professor G.H. Dore (Tom Hanks), tunneling expert The General (Tzi Ma), demolitions expert Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons), slow-witted muscle Lump (Ryan Hurst), and inside man Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans). These are the kinds of characters that make the Coen films special. These five characters, especially Dore and Pancake, deserve to go right alongside such Coen Bros. all-stars as The Dude, Walter, Marge, Ulysses Everett McGill, and so many others. All the actors in this film are just fantastic, but Hanks and Simmons are really the stand-outs. The team-up of Hanks with the Coen Bros. works so perfectly that it makes you wonder why it has happened till now. Dore isn’t an evil man, but Hanks plays the verbose and arrogant professor with such enthusiasm and glee that it makes you wish that he did more comedies these days. Simmons also does a remarkable job as the bass-voiced Pancake and I still crack-up when I think “IBS”. See the film and you’ll also crack a smile thinking about those three little letters.
The Ladykillers shares the dark humor, hyper-real, and oddball characters featured in most of their films, but it shares most in common with 2001’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? Both films dwell in an American south out of time. Although the film takes place in the present day, everything seems rustic—from the Sheriff’s office, to the church, and to Dore’s Colonel Sanders-inspired wardrobe. And also like O Brother, The Ladykillers also has a great soundtrack put together by T-Bone Burnett. While O Brother was all about blue grass, The Ladykillers is all about gospel and its one of those soundtracks that you want to put in your collection.
The Coen Brothers are two of the most creative, interesting filmmakers working today. Thankfully Intolerable Cruelty wasn’t the signal of decline for these two and rather just a misstep. With The Ladykillers, the Coens tap back into what makes them so unique and create a film that’s fun, quotable, dark, and quirky with a great look and sound. They make it look like, to quote Mr. Pancake, "the easiest thing in the world."
Words by
Matt Goldberg
4.8.04