I first saw this movie the perfect way: at an art house with no one in the cinema after they'd taken the letters down from the sign... the last day and showing time, the only man who was there, The Man Who Wasn't There. What a weird experience. What ... (read more) I first saw this movie the perfect way: at an art house with no one in the cinema after they'd taken the letters down from the sign... the last day and showing time, the only man who was there, The Man Who Wasn't There. What a weird experience. What noir! The poster picture is right about something--the dialogue is photogenic. I've read Camus' The Stranger and somehow prefer this movie, but I have to say it borrows a bit, don't I? I admire Billy Thornton as a barber glazed over in time, a salt statue of the earth--and his archetypal lawyer at the end played impeccably by Tony Shalhoub. If you look at this as an uncredited adaptation of Camus or a long-delayed and rerouted echo of the Great Depression, I think you'll spot its understatement stamped on fine, liquor-and-smoke-soaked pulp.

A really beautiful film visually and a haunting portrait of how all those twists and turns have suddenly become the curves of our life.

Monumentally boring. Massive mis-step by the Coens.

the b/w is so smooth it's just perfect (i can't believe they actually made an official colour version, too, can't see the point, to be honest). i love the story with all its turns and all its coen bros complications. most of the performances are just... (read more) the b/w is so smooth it's just perfect (i can't believe they actually made an official colour version, too, can't see the point, to be honest). i love the story with all its turns and all its coen bros complications. most of the performances are just spot on. not so sure about johansson, but i never really like her, so maybe it's just my problem.

Surprising story about a man without ambition, funny sometimes, sad sometimes, interesting.

A paradoxical film even by the Coen brothers' standards: a painstakingly crafted throwaway.

A loving tribute to midcentury cinema.

The Man Who Wasn't There is so assured and perceptive in its style, so loving, so intensely right, that if you can receive on that frequency, the film is like a voluptuous feast.

There are goofy flourishes here, the in-jokey, left-field rummies that are the Brothers Coen's stock-in-trade. But this is altogether a quieter, more philosophical sort of endeavor.

Full of delightful idiosyncrasies and surprising bits of acting.