Set in a sleepy Northern California town in the 1940s, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen 's The Man Who Wasn't There stars Billy Bob Thornton as Ed Crane, a humble barber who suspects his hard-hearted and hard-drinking wife Doris ( Frances McDormand ) of having an affair with her boss ( James Gandolfini ). When a jocular stranger ( Jon Polito ) breezes into town hinting at the fortune to be made investing in an outlandish-sounding new invention called dry cleaning, Ed hatches a blackmail scheme he hopes will make him rich and get him some revenge at the same time. His plan goes horribly awry when he accidentally commits a murder for which Doris ends up being blamed, landing her in the slammer and Ed at the mercy of blowhard big-city lawyer Freddy Riedenschneider ( Tony Shalhoub ). Filmed in black-and-white by three-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins , The Man Who Wasn't There was inspired by the seedy crime novels of James M. Cain , putting a distinctly Coen brothers' spin on the film noir tradition. Though spiked with their characteristic humor, its moody atmosphere hearkens back to the darker moments of Blood Simple and Fargo — a marked departure from the high-spirited slapstick of O Brother Where Art Thou . — Tom Vick
|
Billy Bob Thornton | Ed Crane |
|
Frances McDormand | Doris Crane |
|
Michael Badalucco | Frank |
|
James Gandolfini | Big Dave Brewster |
|
Katherine Borowitz | Ann Nirdlinger Brewster |
|
Jon Polito | Creighton Tolliver |
|
Scarlett Johansson | Birdy Abundas |
|
Richard Jenkins | Walter Abundas |
|
Tony Shalhoub | Freddy Riedenschneider |
|
Christopher Kriesa | Officer Persky |
|
Brian Haley | Officer Krebs |
|
Jack McGee | P.I. Burns |
|
Gregg Binkley | New Man |
|
Alan Fudge | Dr. Diedrickson |
|
Lilyan Chauvin | Medium |
|
Adam Alexi-Malle | Jacques Carcanogues |
|
Ted Rooney | Bingo Caller |
|
Abraham Benrubi | Party Man |
|
Christian Ferratti | Child |
|
Rhoda Gemignani | Costanza |
|
E.J. Callahan | Customer |
|
Brooke Smith | Sobbing Prisoner |
|
Ron Ross | Banker |
|
Hallie Singleton | Waitress |
|
Jon Donnelly | Gatto Eater |
| Director | Joel Coen |
|
| Ethan Coen |
|
|
| Writer | Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | |
| Producer | Tim Bevan, John Cameron, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Eric Fellner, Robert Graf | |
| Musician | Carter Burwell | |
| Photography | Roger Deakins | |
| Edition | Special Edition |
|---|---|
| Packaging | Keep Case |
| Nr Discs | 1 |
| Screen Ratios | Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) |
| Audio Tracks | ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 FRENCH: Dolby Digital Stereo |
| Subtitles | English | English (Closed Captioned) | French | Spanish |
| Distributor | Universal Studios |
| Layers | Single side, Dual layer |
| Edition Release Date | Jun 01, 2003 |
| Regions | 1 |