Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore and Steve Bucemi star in this mixed-up mystery/comedy made by the Cohen brothers (Fargo, Raising Arizona) that misses just as much as it hits. It took me three viewings to really get into this movie, and while the fact that I watched a movie I was only so-so about three times indicates my lack of social resume, the fact that it did wind up rubbing off on me after all says something about the movie's charm. Yes, charm.
Jeff Bridges is Jeff Lebowski, better known as "The Dude," a professional L.A. sponge who gets his rug soiled in a break-in when two henchmen looking for the millionaire Jeff Lebowski demand a repayment of a sum owed. Acting on the advice of his Vietnam-obsessed veteran friend Walter (Goodman), The Dude confronts the real Lebowski, makes off with a replacement rug, and within twenty-four hours gets hired by Lebowski to act as middleman to the kidnappers who have kidnapped his wife, Bunny. The Dude abides, but because of his buddy Walter's halfassed attempt at salvaging the ransom and making a profit, the handoff goes badly and The Dude finds himself struggling between Lebowski (who wants his wife back), Walter (who wants recompense from everyone and everybody about Vietnam), a bunch of German nihilists (who want their money for the ransom), Maude Lebowski (Lebowski's daughter and New Wave artist who wants a baby) and Donnie (Buscemi, who just wants a clue).
On a first viewing, I had a raging headache over the pedestrian, repetitive dialogue between Goodman and Bridges. Goodman is tiresome with his constant domineering characterization, while the Dude's constant use of "man" as an expression of dismay, endearment, description and everything but the dative case soon limits how much of his dialogue we actually hear. The movie doesn't function so much as a singular story (though there is one, and it does work) as it does a bunch of mini-stories tied loosely and carelessly together (Donnie's youthfulness; Walter's messy divorce; Bunny Lebowski's rambunctiousness; the Dude's lifestyle). As a friend of mine put it, "I'm so busy trying to figure out how the Dude makes a living, I don't even realize it when something else happens."
However (and here's where I destroy any credibility I may have established up to this point), the movie grows on you. That's right, I said it. I've always contended that anything you need to have "grow on you" in order to appreciate ranks right up there with the mold under my refrigerator: that can grow on me, but why in hell would I want it to? Still, it can't be denied that the characters portrayed in The Big Lebowski are many and varied, all with a particular charm of their own. Move over Michael Richardson-- Jeff Bridges, one of the more underappreciated actors of our time, is who you'll be thinking of when you hear the cliche "That guy is such a character." The Dude's utter laziness and frivolity personifies both what we desire when we wake up to an alarm clock every morning, and what we despise when tax time comes. Also, if you examine your own discourse immediately after the movie, you'll notice that your use of the ejaculative "man" will have increased twenty percent.
Ranking this movie with other Cohen brothers flicks is tough; it's not as witty and suspenseful as Fargo, and it's not as funny as Raising Arizona, but it functions better than Blood Simple, which makes it sort of a classic in its own right. The dream sequences alone (vastly more complicated than they appear in a first viewing) up the movie's value, and if examined carefully, the movie underscores several Judeo-Christian references kicked around by pop cultural mores.
But never mind all that. It's got bowling in it. What more do you need?
--Long
Copyright 2002 Tso Long Productions ©