The Man Who Wasn't There

Ed leads a dull life in a small Californian town, cutting hair in his in-laws' barber shop. His wife is having an affair, which bothers him not in the slightest until a chance to escape presents itself. This 'business' opportunity requires $10,000, a sum that he is happy to extort out of her lover. But this minor crime turns out to be fairly inconsequential - in fact, it's just the beginning…

The Man Who Wasn't There is Joel and Ethan Coen's homage to Hitchcock and the classic film noir thrillers of the 1940s. The plot is intense and deliberate, moving through its unpredictable twists and turns, all the time accompanied by Ed's laconic voice-over. The black and white images match the subject perfectly, shadowy figures and pools of light that have to be some of the most striking and memorable of the year. Despite mimicking so many elements of old films, there is never a problem with the patronising seriousness that plagues so many 'tributes', the movie being buoyed up by the Coens' instinct for black humour.

As always, the Coen brothers' cast seems heaven-sent. Billy Bob Thornton makes his inaugural appearance for them, his craggy features perfect for the world-weary character and 1940s setting. Frances McDormand, on the other hand, racks up her fourth Coen brothers film, putting in an excellent performance, even if she sometimes does look a bit caricatured in her cat's-eye glasses and period suits. James Gandolfini doesn't look likely to escape typecasting as a gangster; if anything, he looks more hood-like than ever in braces and fedora.

The Man Who Wasn't There is another excellent film from the Coen brothers', one that manages to avoid the offbeat weirdness of some of their previous work without losing the qualities that makes them so interesting.

Alexandra Schulman