The Ladykillers

In their first official co-directing effort*, Joel and Ethan Coen once again demonstrate their uncanny ability to coax a fresh, original performance out of a movie star whose recent roles had him performing on autopilot. Having allowed Jeff Bridges to showcase his laid-back, altogether original charm in The Big Lebowski (1998) and given George Clooney the opportunity to break out of his self-assured handsome-guy roles in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and Intolerable Cruelty (2004), the Coen brothers do the same favor for Tom Hanks in The Ladykillers (2004), a remake of the 1955 Ealing comedy of the same name.

Reprising a role originally played by Alec Guinness, Hanks is Professor Goldthwait Higginson Dorr, a criminal mastermind who doesn’t let his unlawful impulses interfere with his Southern gentility or his penchant for reciting Edgar Allen Poe. The role is a departure for Hanks, who, seemingly hellbent on becoming Jimmy Stewart, has spent the last decade in roles handpicked to highlight his all-American, everyman qualities (e.g. Forrest Gump (1994), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Castaway (1999), and Catch Me If You Can (2002)). Although at times he appears to be having a little too much fun with it (most notably evidenced by Dorr’s wheezy, overdone laugh), it is nevertheless refreshing to see Hanks in a role that so heavily relies on the goofy, comedic skills he made his name with (Bosom Buddies, anyone?).

The film’s plot essentially revolves around Dorr’s plan to rob a nearby casino by tunneling underground into its vault; his only obstacle is finding a house near the casino from which he can drill a passageway. After assembling a mismatched team of "experts," including Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans in a hilarious, scene-stealing performance), Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons), The General (Tzi Ma), and Lump Hudson (Ryan Hurst), Dorr sets out to pinpoint the perfect locale.

As it happens, Marva Munson, an elderly widow with strong ties to her church and little tolerance for "hippity-hop music" (as she calls it), just happens to have a spare room available. When Dorr manages to convince Marva that he and his partners are religious Renaissance musicians looking for a practice space, she agrees to let him the room. However, things begin get complicated when she begins to suspect that the noises in her basement have little to do with Renaissance symphonies.

Sneaking in yet another homage to Sullivan’s Travels (1941), the Preston Sturges film the Coens frequently referenced in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Marva’s living room contains a painting of her late husband, whose facial expression on the portrait changes in reaction to the nefarious characters surrounding him, just as the picture of the farm widow’s husband did in the Sturges film.

Although The Ladykillers may lack Sturges’ antic sense of timing, it does mark a return to (eccentric) form for the Coens after the lackluster Intolerable Cruelty and the impressive but dour The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001).

* The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has been known to make it difficult for two people to receive directing credit for a film. In their previous movies, Joel received official directing credit, while Ethan was credited as a producer (though it is widely known that the two worked as a team).