Delayed Reaction: The Ladykillers

Premise: A wily Southern "professor" assembles a crew to rob a vault from an old woman's basement until things go wrong.

 

It's hard to overpraise the Coens. They are among the most idiosyncratic filmmakers out there. Their dark humor makes all of their films recognizable with each other, but there's surprising variety in the type of movies they make. There are about a dozen correct answers to what their best film is. One that tops almost no one's list though is The Ladykillers. In fact, I'm suspicious of anyone who doesn't call it their worst. It's the third in a trio of films that most people choose to forget in the early 200s. 2001's The Man Who Wasn't There is the only film of theirs I haven't seen, mostly because I always forget about it. 2003's Intolerable Cruelty is the only Coen film the people forget is a Coen film. Then came The Ladykillers: this O. Henry story by way of Ocean's Eleven and O Brother, Where Art Thou? I sometimes wonder what the Coens' reputation would be now if they didn't correct course with their next film: the Best Picture-winning There Will Be Blood.

It's a bummer that this is the worst Coen Brothers movie. I love the idea of Tom Hanks and the Coens working together. You'd think that Hanks has a perfect screen presence for the Coens. He can be silly and serious. He'll chew scenery if you need him to and he can even have chemistry with a volleyball. I'd love to see them work together again, because he is doing something interesting in The Ladykillers. He's just in a movie that doesn't work.

 

I'm having the hardest time putting my finger on what doesn't work about the movie. That's the problem with idiosyncratic things. It's hard to find comparisons, and what works in one instance may not in another. Half of the Coens' movies could be accused of trying too hard to be funny. Hail Caesar! or Burn After Reading are very straightforward about when and how they are trying to be funny. They've often relied on deus ex machina plot development. The calibration of The Ladykillers is just off. It tries a little too hard to be funny. The plot is just a little too contrived. And it probably doesn't help that it brings in a lot of non-regular Coen players who aren't used to their rhythms.

 

I'm reminded a bit of George Clooney's Suburbicon, which used a Coen Brother's screenplay. That movie is also recognizably a Coens story. That one even uses some Coen actors. The movie is awful though, because everything is off. I got the sense that there was a reason why the Coens never opted to actually develop that script into a movie. They hadn't cracked the formula. I think it's telling that after The Ladykillers (their 4th film in 5 years), it was three years before No Country for Old Men came out. It feels like they paused to reset.

 

There's some Woody Allen in the Coen Brothers. I think they could easily have the same output as Allen who had a stretch from 1982 to 2017 where he directed 37 films without skipping a year. I imagine the Coens also have a giant pile of drafts sitting around. They've often made films in consecutive years. Some of their best films even. Where they differ from Woody Allen though is that Allen pushes through barely complete or thin scripts into films, anxious to move to the next project. The Coens seem to recognize when they need to take a step back and either take a break or spend a little longer on a project.

 

To get back to my original point though, the only reason to watch The Ladykillers is to be a Coen Brothers completist. I suppose it's also a nice contrast to appreciate when the elements all work in their better films. I suppose the movie is watchable. It's got some decent comedy in a couple places. It's still a Coen Brothers movie. They didn't magically forget how to direct a movie for this. It's just glaring compared to their other movies.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend