Film Review: Inside Llewyn Davis (15) (U.S.A. 2013) (Directors: Joel & Ethan Coen),  The Cameo Cinema Screen One, Edinburgh, Sunday 26.01.2014, 13:30

I had reservations about this film from when I first heard about it. This relates to the fact that I consider Greenwich Village folk music scene of the early 1960's to be particularly culturally significant for me and I did not know if I wanted to experience the Coen brothers take on this. I landed up going as the critical reception to it was so overwhelmingly positive that I landed up wondering whether I would land up regretting not going to see it.

A while into the film I was aware of what I can only describe as a silent scream inside my head. This I see as being a response to the horrifically self indulgent nature of all the characters I had seen on screen up until that point. I was also hacked off by the fact that their supposed eye for detail had overlooked the fact that all of the characters were smoking prefabricated cigarettes, which to me just did not fit with the times or the culture, as I understand it. It just niggled.

Further to all of this, far too much attention was given to a ginger moggy. This appeared superfluous and just acted as another distraction to what little story there was (+ I'm not a moggy lover anyway). Later in the film, when we hear the cat's name, he becomes an analogy for what has been happening to the central character. If this was the sole purpose to the cat, it was a lot of effort and screen time to go to, to enable a fairly trite point.

There was very little humour in the film, this is one of the elements the Coen's tend to do better, so another let down. The character played by John Goodman also appeared unnecessary, except to be seen as a further endurance for the central character.  

The characters did thankfully become more interesting in the 2nd half of the film and with this they were also a lot less annoying. There was also too little use of Carey Mulligan & Justin Timberlake, who were both two of the better elements to the film.

The ending and the beginning of the film are almost identical and includes the central character having an altercation with the same other character, with the same dialogue, though the incidents are clearly not the same. They have not shown the ending and then looped back to see how he got to that. They are showing that the character is a bum who's life is going in circles who experiences the same problems over and over. I felt this was overly simplistic from what they had shown of the character. He is both a bum and not a bum at the same time; his life is certainly too complicated for him to be considered a flat-out-bum. Even if this is the 'point', so what? Is that all they can use this rich cultural period for, to show that a 'bum's' life goes in circles. Even if this is the point, I feel it could have been made a lot better than it was.

I feel the film had interesting elements, though it felt deeply flawed and uncohesive. It was not as bad as 'The Wolf Of Wall Street', though it would have to be going some to manage that. Though I could not recommend it. - I should listen to my reservations more.    

Rating: 03/10.