THE BIG LEBOWSKI (45) (72 - second viewing)

Directed by: Joel Coen (and Ethan Coen)

Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi

The Pitch: There's this guy named Lebowski. But everyone calls him the Dude. Or His Dudeness. Or the Dudester. Or El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing...Uh, what was I saying?...

Theo Sez: Guess everyone's entitled to one disaster after 15 years of continued excellence, and the Coens certainly get theirs with this tedious misfire : inevitably there are good moments (mostly to do with chonsons getting skvashed), but most of it feels a bit like those needlessly unpleasant 70s comedies (FREEBIE AND THE BEAN, say) that piled on the violence, bad language and general belligerence in a frantic attempt to camouflage their lack of invention. Every writer knows the feeling of wanting to make something deliberately loose and shapeless (especially after specialising in meticulously-planned exercises for 15 years) - only most writers realise early on that the anything-goes stuff actually requires more rather than less effort, and shove the resulting mess in a drawer before it can do any damage. That the film knows exactly what it's trying to do - "unchecked aggression" to no great purpose, with a nifty if superficial Gulf War analogy to give it heft - doesn't change the fact that it does it inadequately, with a dearth of ideas, some heavy-handed stabs at visual originality, and fewer laughs in the whole two hours than in the pre-credits sequence of RAISING ARIZONA. Sometimes borderline-embarrassing, and apparently interminable ; just about worth seeing cheaply, if only for the dreamy way our mega-stoned hero drawls "He-ey, nice marmot!". [Okay, so it isn't a disaster ; plus, I admit - confession time - first viewing was right after a large and vinous lunch, which may be why it gave me such a splitting headache. Still terribly erratic and self-indulgent, but the good bits are wondrously original, the cinematic imagination often startling (how'd they do that shot of a mouse-size Dude dwarfed by towering walls in the dream sequence? not worth building a whole massive set just for one shot, surely), and entire scenes remain quotable for days after. Above all, my apologies to Mr. Goodman, whose performance struck me as so much shouting the first time round, but who actually invests his pear-shaped buffoon with a marvellous range of snorts, double takes, dead-eyed stares and little-boy pouts ; the words "force of Nature" seem inadequate.]