The Prestige

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Director/writer Christopher Nolan has given us complex films (Memento, Inception, Interstellar). Here he uses the story of competing magicians in The Prestige (2006) to explore what defines one’s identity. He also uses the performers as a metaphorical vehicle to explore the magic of filmmaking, which is also an illusory art, and how far some may go to succeed in the creative process to achieve recognition, or “prestige.”

The story takes place in 19^th century England and begins with Cutter (Michael Caine) doing a voice-over that describes the three parts of a magic trick. The “pledge” introduces something ordinary. In Nolan’s case, where nothing is ordinary, he presents some intriguing events that will be explored later but for now sets us up for what is happening in the present. The “pledge” is followed by the “turn,” which is a special action, like making something disappear. Cutter says the audience wants to know how the magician did that exceptional move, but “You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled.” Cutter is talking about the willing suspension of disbelief, which is necessary to buy into stories, and which the filmmaker depends upon. The third part of the trick is the “prestige,” which, through a surprising act uses the “magic” to return things to the way they were before the start of the trick.

Nolan actually subverts these parts. His opening gives us intriguing shots he will expand upon later to lead us up to the present, which is one of three timelines in the film. The first image is of something common, a top hat, but there is a field filled with them, making it unusual. As Cutter speaks he is telling the parts of a trick to a little girl, Jess (Samantha Mahurin), which we later discover is the child of magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), and this scene will reappear at the end of the movie. There are shots of the other magician, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) performing his transporter trick on stage amid electrical discharges from a machine. There is a worker there who is blind – a clue. He drops through a trapdoor into a tank of water which the astounded Borden witnesses.

Nolan then transports us to a courtroom where Borden is on trial for the murder of Angier. The depiction of current events is the first timeline. Cutter, Angier’s magic trick engineer, is testifying, saying Borden placed the tank under the trapdoor to drown his competitor. Cutter is not willing to reveal the details of the “transported man” trick Angier was performing at the time of his death since it is very sought after and knowledge of the trick would render the act worthless. He reveals to the judge in private that a “wizard” invented the electrical machine which was not an illusion, but did what it appeared to do. This statement is a half-truth, as we discover, and fits in with the theme of illusion versus reality in the story. He tells the judge that magicians dress up “plain” and “sometimes brutal truths.” Like most artists, they present truth clothed in fiction. He says that the water tank joined the two men in an awful way, which we later learn.

Owens (Roger Rees), a lawyer, visits Borden in jail. He says he represents Lord Caldlow who wants to buy Borden’s version of the “transported man,” and has already purchased all of Angier’s belongings. Borden refuses, and Owens uses Jess’s fate as leverage, saying Caldlow will intervene to save her from becoming an orphan in a workhouse. He also gives Borden Angier’s diary which relates his attempt to find out about Borden’s transporting trick. Later, Fallon, Borden’s engineer, nods his confirmation that the state will put Jess in an orphan work program after Borden is hanged. Borden tells Fallon to get in touch with the lawyer, Owens, that he has reconsidered selling him his transported man trick. He hasn’t lost his skill despite the finger loss as he fools a nasty guard by securing the man in a leg chain.

The contents of the diary are the second timeline in the film. The diary tells of Angier trying to decode Borden’s notebook (we later learn how he acquired it), which needs a five-letter encrypted word reveal Borden’s illusions. Angier travels to Colorado to meet the now-renowned Tesla (David Bowie) who Angier believes helped Borden do his famous trick. (Angier is limping, and we learn of the injury further on. He also wears a hat like those in the first shot. More of Nolan’s teasers). Angier is already a known magician under the name The Great Danton. The question of what is one’s true identity enters here, as we see later that disguises are used in various ways to trick others, and of course the audience, which is part of showmanship.

As Angier reads Borden’s notebook (which is a story within a story), the movie presents the third timeline. It relates how Angier and Borden in the past worked for magician Milton (Ricky Jay), along with Cutter. Angier and Borden pretended to be members of the audience and tied the wrists and feet of Julia (Piper Parabo) in a water-escape trick (we have an echo here of Angier drowning in the water tank in the first montage). Angier kisses Julia’s leg while he puts rope around it, and Cutter divulges their relationship when he says Angier could be seen kissing his “wife.” Borden complains that Milton’s act is boring, and he thinks there should be more risky tricks like the bullet-catching bit. Cutter says that an audience member could substitute a button instead of the blank and kill someone. He also warns Borden about the type of knot that Borden uses on Julia’s wrists, which may look better but is difficult to slip off. (There is a foreshadowing here).

Cutter tests the men’s magical insight by sending them to see a Chinese magician make a large fishbowl with water and a fish appear from behind a scarf. Borden says the magician held it between his legs under his robes. He walks in a halting manner in real life to hide his deception. Again, what appears on the surface is not a true picture. Borden says the real trick is his daily performance, pretending to be handicapped. It is the Chinese magician’s devotion to his craft that Borden admires. Nolan could be saying the same about any artist committed to his work.

Angier can barely hold the fishbowl without water, and marvels as to how the Chinese magician lives his act, pretending to be a cripple. Angier has his own secret, which we get a hint of when he says he uses a fake name so his family will not know he is trying to be an entertainer. The implication is that he comes from a prestigious family who would not cherish him trying to earn a magician’s prestige. The film stresses deception in art and in life, and how they merge.

Borden reads in Angier’s diary about how Borden requires self-sacrifice in magic and comments about how Borden doesn’t understand that extreme level of sacrifice that he has undergone. We see Angier looking at a cameo of Julia when we hear these words. (Of course, Borden can’t see this fact by reading. It takes Nolan to manifest the narrative visually). The story eventually shows us why Angier speaks of personal loss.

There is a scene where Milton takes the ordinary, a bird in a cage, and slams down on it while it is covered with a drape. The cage disappears (the “turn”). He then supposedly brings back the bird from under a handkerchief (the “prestige”). A boy in the audience cries, perceiving that the original bird was killed and another took its place. His insight is confirmed by Borden disposing of the dead bird in the collapsed cage hidden in the table, while other birds in the back room await their fate. We have here a foreshadowing of Angier’s ultimate trick (which was implied by the opening scene of the film showing the numerous hats). Borden later tells the boy that “the secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.” The suggestion is the way one uses the mystery is what’s important. Again, the same can be said of filmmaking.

Borden and the boy’s aunt, Sarah (Rebecca Hill), begin a relationship (which eventually mirrors to some degree that of Angier and Julia, as the story revolves around itself). When he walks her home, she says she can’t invite him in just then. He seems to leave, but then is inside her place asking her about what she wants in her tea. Is he that good a magician, doing his transporting man trick, or is there something else going on?

At the next performance of the water tank escape, Julia gives Borden a nod and he proceeds with tying the rope around her wrists. However, she can’t slip the bonds and she drowns. The implication is that one can go too far in one’s passion and the result is collateral damage to others. The personal loss Angier noted in his diary is obvious now, and he becomes devastated and full of wrath because of Julia’s death. Borden infuriates Angier even more by saying he doesn’t know which type of knot he used. (Nolan explored the effects of guilt and revenge in this film and in Memento, and guilt in Inception and the apocalyptic guilt that weighs on Oppenheimer).

With the death of Julia, Milton’s career is over, Borden and Angier go off to establish their own careers. Sarah meets the bearded and bespectacled Fallon. Sarah informs Borden that she is going to have a baby. He says he loves her, but she says, “not today.” She explains that “maybe today you’re more in love with magic.” Sarah seems okay with sharing Borden with his other passion, at least for now.  

Angier continues to read Borden’s notebook. He relates performing in front of a disapproving crowd. Although Borden has great tricks, he is not a showman and does not wrap the magic in an intriguing way. He gains the audience’s attention by starting the bullet-catching trick. Angier shows up in disguise and volunteers to be the shooter. He adds his own round of ammunition to the pistol and demands to know what knot did Borden tie around Julia’s hands. Again, Borden says he doesn’t know. Angier fires the pistol and maims Borden, blowing off the ends of two fingers. Borden’s words reiterate that he agonizes over what knot he tied. Angier is outraged that Borden could not know, since the man was an accomplished magician. The suggestion is that Borden may be working on an unconscious level at times, not sure what is real and what is an illusion, since his magic is so real to him because he lives it, like the Chinese magician.

Angier’s diary recounts how he hooked up with Cutter who couldn’t find work after Julia’s death. They also hired an attractive assistant, Olivia (Scarlett Johansson), whose beauty Cutter said is an effective distraction, which adds to the audience not really wanting to know what is truly happening.

Angier doesn’t want to kill birds when doing the disappearing cage trick. Cutter lectures him, saying he is not a “wizard,” and he must get his “hands dirty,” if he wants to be successful. We again have the theme of how far an artist must go to perfect his work. However, Cutter invented a contraption that collapses the cage while sparing the bird. They get a gig working for Merrit (William Morgan Shepphard). Angier attempts to do the disappearing bird trick. But a disguised Borden seeks revenge and acts as a volunteer from the audience. By mimicking Angier’s attack on himself, he sabotages the trick, killing the dove and breaking the female volunteer’s fingers. Angier’s hands have now been dirtied. Merrit terminated their run, and Angier must come up with a show-stopping performance to redeem his reputation.

By reading Borden’s diary, Angier believes that his antagonist acquired a machine from Tesla to perform his incredible trick, and he asks Alley (Andy Serkis), Tesla’s assistant, a second time to meet Tesla. Alley shows how Tesla can turn on lights without wires. Angier sees how science is magical without tricks. He goes to an alternating current demonstration where Alley argues against Edison’s attempts to “Smear” Tesla’s works (the rivalry was real). The electrical discharges jumping from conductor to conductor frighten the audience, as if they are seeing the power of a god. Angier follows Borden who also attended the demonstration. Angier’s diary says he was envious of seeing Borden with his wife and child, but he also knew that Borden tormented his family with his obsession over his magic. In a way, Borden has a split personality according to Angier. We discover that he is not far from the truth.

By this time, Olivia and Angier have become involved romantically. In Angier’s diary we learn that, in disguise, he witnesses Borden premier his “Transported Man” trick. He goes in one door of a closet at one end of the stage and comes out another door at the other end of the stage in the time it takes to bounce a rubber ball on the raised platform. Cutter says he is using a double, but Olivia noted a gloved hand on the man occupying each closet, revealing the lost fingers. Angier says he will get even with Borden by stealing his trick.

Cutter says the only way they can duplicate Borden’s act is to find a double for Angier, which they do. He is Gerald Root (also played by Jackman). He is a drunken, out-of-work actor. He says to Angier, “Did you think you were unique, Mr. Angier? I’ve been Caesar. I’ve played Faust. How hard could it possibly be to play the Great Danton?” Root as an actor assumes other identities, false fronts, to present the illusion that he is someone else. A performance in its own way is a sham to temporarily convince the audience that what they are seeing is real. Nolan is stressing the illusion versus reality aspect of the performing arts.

Angier’s team dresses up the trick and call it “The New Transported Man.” Instead of a closet they have just two door frames. But there are trapdoors at the thresholds. Angier must be the first man as he has the ability to dramatically introduce the act. Behind the open door he falls through the trapdoor onto padding below. Root emerges at the other end. He overacts his part, and even kisses Olivia. Angier is not able to experience the adulation of the crowd, and enjoy the “prestige,” since he is below the stage. They must keep Root under wraps because if he surfaces and is recognized as working for Angier, the illusion is destroyed. Angier’s life is copying that of Borden, and the two stories begin to blur together as the story unfolds.

Angier is obsessed with learning how Borden does his trick without a double so he can be the one on the stage accepting the audience’s adoration. He sends Olivia to work for Borden as a spy, but she is to tell him the truth, that Angier sent her to discover Borden’s secret of the Transported Man. Angier assumes Borden will want her as a counterspy to access Angier’s secrets. Even though Angier has become very successful, Borden’s keen eye can tell that his double is overweight and drunk. Olivia tells Borden that she is sick of Angier’s obsession with Borden, which turns out not to be too far from the truth.

Angier reads in Borden’s diary that Borden found Root and convinced him that he had the power in the act. Root then acts to subvert the performance unless he gets more money and control. Borden sabotages the act eventually by removing the padding under the trapdoor and Angier injures his leg when he falls through during one performance (remember his limp at the beginning of the film?). Instead of Root appearing through the door, it is Borden, and he tied up Root and has him descend from the ceiling with a sign that says he is Borden’s opening act. Borden has spruced up his performance by adding some of Tesla’s electronics and has Olivia for effect.

Cutter wonders if Olivia is now working for Borden since he discovered Root. It becomes very difficult to know what is a lie and what is the truth. Angier confronts Olivia with his suspicions. She says Borden uses a double since she has seen wigs, glasses and makeup about. Angier dismisses her impression, saying it’s misdirection, because Borden lives his act, the way the Chinese magician did. But sometimes the overly suspicious can no longer accept what is obviously true. Olivia gives him Borden’s notebook, and that is how Angier was able to read it (it took a while for the audience to discover this fact). Angier shows his obsession, and his downfall, as he says he only cares about Borden’s secret, not the death of his wife anymore. Both magicians let their preoccupation with their craft interfere with their attention to others. Olivia is torn, but Angier’s manipulation of her most likely is the reason she reveals that she has fallen in love with Borden.

Angier kidnaps Fallon as leverage to get Borden to explain his Transporting Man trick. He buries the man in a wooden box and when Borden shows up, Angier says Fallon wouldn’t talk, in fact, he says, “He doesn’t talk at all.” We never hear Fallon speak – another clue. Borden writes “Tesla” as the answer to how he performs his trick, and then saves Fallon by digging him up. There are a number of references to being in boxes, or cages, losing freedom and wanting to escape.

Angier wants to see what machine Borden bought and he wants a duplicate. In his diary he writes that he finally met Tesla, who dramatically enters by walking through electrical streams, looking like a modern Prometheus (the mythological reference is used by Nolan in Oppenheimer). He confirms his view of how one can achieve anything if one has the “nerve,” the courage to apply oneself. Money is also a factor, and Angier says it is not a problem. We again get an idea about his background. But, Tesla also means there is a nonmonetary “cost” resulting from obsession. Tesla admits that he is a “slave” to his own obsessions, and “one day they’ll choose to destroy” him. Angier says Tesla knows urging caution about an obsession is pointless, basically saying that an obsession triumphs over all warnings. Perhaps Nolan is implying that the drive to fulfill one’s artistic vision sometimes will not be deterred by whatever negative outcomes surface in the pursuit of that quest. Nolan, here, and in such films as Interstellar and Oppenheimer explores the fascination and fear of science.

Angier reads in the notebook as we get a scene which reveals that Olivia says to Borden that she had loved Angier but despised him for using her to steal his competitor’s secret. Borden wrote that Olivia’s loyalty was proven by not only letting him know where Root was, but also because Borden wanted her to give Angier the notebook. He was manipulating Angier by having him read it. “Tesla” was the keyword to the notebook, but not to his trick, he writes as he directly addresses Angier in the notebook. Borden thinks he’s sent Angier on a wild goose chase with Tesla, but it becomes an ironic twist in the plot.

An angry Angier confronts Tesla, saying he made the magician think that he constructed a machine for Borden so he could take Angier’s money to fight Edison. Tesla says the machine needs further experimentation. He tries using a cat as the subject of a test, but the cat is not transported. As Angier exits Tesla’s laboratory he follows the sound of a cat. He finds two cats, the original and a duplicate, as well as many reproductions of his hat (which was the first shot of the film). Tesla’s machine does not transport, it makes copies, so the uniqueness of the individual becomes dissipated.

Sarah is becoming more disenchanted with her marriage and is drinking alcohol more. Borden assures her that he loves her and Jess their child more than anything. Borden promised Jess he would take her to the zoo, yet he tells Fallon to do it and try and reassure Sarah that he loves her. We don’t see if Jess is disappointed his father doesn’t keep his promise. Borden sees Olivia who kisses him and he says he doesn’t want her to call him Freddie. Why? When she says she doesn’t trust Fallon, Borden says that Fallon protects all his interests. These are all clues as to Fallon’s true identity.

Edison’s henchmen have burned Tesla’s property, but he delivered the machine to Angier saying in a note that those interested in magic will accept it because they like to be “mystified.” Could that not also be said for us in the audience as we watch Nolan’s cinematic magic? Tesla also delivers a warning that although he has provided the goods for which Angier paid him, he tells him to destroy the machine since it will only be a source of grief. We have again the warning of going too far for one’s artistic passion. And, we see the overreaching danger of science (obviously a theme Nolan is interested in later in Oppenheimer). Borden receives this information by reading Angier’s diary. Angier’s writing addresses Borden directly (just as Borden did so in his notebook). Angier’s words say that he knows Borden awaits the death sentence for killing Angier. But, if the man is dead, how can he have written this closing? Borden tells Owens, the lawyer, that the diary is a fake, but Owens says it is in Angier’s handwriting. The theme of illusion versus reality continually surfaces, and it appears that here the diary is genuine. That would mean that Angier is not dead. Or, is he?

Sarah is unable to live in Borden’s world of lies, secrets, and tricks. She wants honesty, and he can’t do that because he puts his profession above all else. They go back and forth as to whether that day he loves her, and he admits that this day he does not. She can no longer continue in this state of imprisonment, which is like a life in a cage or a box, or a tank of water. Her escape is suicide as she hangs herself (a foreshadowing). Now both magicians have lost their wives, which shows them to have surrendered what they hold most dear because of their craft. Later, Borden tells Olivia he never loved Sarah, but only loves her. Is he a lying jerk, or is there something else going on? She says he is a cold man to be so dismissive of Sarah. She leaves, saying he and Angier deserve each other. In a way, they are psychological twins to her.

Angier reconnects with Cutter and says he wants to do the transported man to show Borden that he can do the trick without Root. Angier doesn’t want Cutter backstage and has hired blind stagehands (remember there was a blind worker at the very beginning of the film, which of course is now chronologically at the end of the tale). He wants total secrecy as to how his trick works. Angier turns on the machine for a patron, Ackerman (Edward Hibbert) Angier disappears and almost instantaneously appears at the back of the auditorium. Has Tesla perfected his invention? Borden shows up at Angier’s performance and although he saw that Angier disappeared through a trapdoor, he berates Fallon for not being able to figure out how Angier can show up fifty yards away almost instantaneously.

Borden sneaks under the stage and witnesses Angier falling through the trapdoor into a water tank that then locks. Borden tries to break the glass with an axe, but can’t save the drowning Angier. He has died as his wife did. Cutter shows up and Borden is found guilty of the murder of Angier, as has already been shown. Cutter meets with Owens and says although Lord Caldlow has purchased all the equipment, Cutter wants Tesla’s machine.

That same Lord Caldlow shows up with Jess at the prison since Borden struck a deal with Owens that he would deliver the prestige part of his tricks if he could see his daughter once more. Caldlow is Angier, and he says he “always has been.” We now know that Angier comes from an aristocratic family and that is why money was no object when it came to buying Tesla’s machine. Borden concedes that Angier no longer fears getting his “hands dirty.” Just like Borden, he is all in when it comes to his craft. Borden hands Angier the “prestige” parts of his tricks so that Jess will not be under Angier’s control. Angier is stealing what’s left of Borden’s family for himself. Angier says that Borden was the better magician, but Angier’s trick is better, so he rips up the papers. Borden shows Jess his rubber ball, the one he used in his transported man trick, and here symbolizes that he has a bit of magic left to get his daughter back. He screams that the man he was supposed to have killed is walking out the door, so he is innocent.

Cutter discovers Caldlow’s address and sees that Angier is still alive. Cutter wants the machine destroyed and Angier says it will never be used again, and will be placed with the rest of the show’s equipment. Meanwhile, Borden meets with Fallon, says he is sorry about Sarah, and throws him the rubber ball, telling him to live life for the both of them.

As Borden goes to the gallows he asks the guard, “Are you watching closely?” Is there one more trick to be played? Just before he is hanged (like Sarah, so poetic justice?), Borden says “Abracadabra!” There is a cut to the rubber ball bouncing toward Angier and a shot rings out as he is shot. The man with the pistol is Borden. Or is it? Just before his death Angier realizes that Fallon is Borden’s twin brother. His shooter reveals that they were both Borden and Fallon, sharing one life. They alternated who disappeared and reappeared in the transported man trick. The other brother sacrificed his fingers to make the illusion seem real. It was one who loved Sarah, and one who loved Olivia, so depending on who was with which woman, the truth was actually told.

Angier tells Borden the truth. Tesla did not perfect his machine. Angier used it to create a double of himself, shot the first duplicate, and drowned the other versions of himself so that there would only be one Great Danton remaining. His storage facilities have several water tanks with drowned versions of himself. As he said often in the film, “no one cares about the man in the box” and the film has repeatedly shown imprisonment and various, even lethal ways, of escape. There is always that risk for the sake of the magic. Angier paid the ultimate price, his own death, to come back in the prestige, to create wonder. Now that the show is over, the remaining duplicate Angier takes a figurative last bow. He drops a lantern, and the resulting fire destroys his secrets.

Jess walks away with her “father.” Is it Fallon, or was it Fallon who was hanged, and Borden reunites with his daughter? Nolan keeps his secret, as all good magicians do, but he brings the man back, to earn the prestige.

The next film is Europa, Europa.

Lost in Translation

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed!

Lost in Translation (2003), written and directed by Sofia Coppola (she won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay), has at its center two people who feel alienated from others and maybe even themselves as they search for what they want. This sense of feeling “lost” is dramatized by placing the main characters in a foreign land where they are not able to connect to the inhabitants due to the inability to understand the native language and some customs.

Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is an actor who is in Japan to do a whiskey commercial for a nice sum of money which he can use since his show business career has stalled. Tokyo is a modern city lit up like New York, but all the electric signs are in Japanese, which reminds Bob he is the foreigner, the outsider. Bob even sees himself in an advertisement, with Japanese writing next to his face, stressing familiarity and strangeness at the same time. Bob makes a bit or a racist joke about how his greeting is “short and sweet,” and, so, very Japanese. He does stand out as the tall one in the elevator, emphasizing how he is out of place. He receives a message from his wife, Lydia, that says he forgot his son’s birthday. It indicates that he is estranged from his family, which indicates his solitary situation.

He sits on his bed listening to classical music and looks inanimate, as if entropy has taken him over. At the hotel bar two young men recognize him and talk about a car chase in one of his films. He responds minimally to them, and escapes. He does not want the superficial and awkward intrusion of fans. He’s jet-lagged and can’t sleep. The communications he receives from his wife are not about how he is missed but instead are faxes about house remodeling which shows how removed from emotion their relationship has become. Bob’s out-of-sync existence here is stressed by curtains sliding open automatically letting bright light in his room in the morning, forcing him to wake up. And, the shower head only fits at a level that does not accommodate Bob’s taller height.

Charlotte, (Scarlett Johansson) is also sleepless in Tokyo. She is the young wife of John (Giovanni Rabisi), a very busy photographer who has little time for her and basically abandons her in Tokyo. John sleeps soundly, at peace with his life. He runs out in the morning with a drive-by “I love you,” to Charlotte as he rushes out the door. Charlotte is in her underwear a great deal in her room, suggesting she isn’t ready to meet the outside, alien world.

At the shoot for the whiskey commercial, the Japanese director goes on in his native tongue about what he wants. The translator says the director said, “he wants you to turn, look into the camera.” The perplexed Bob asks, “That’s all he said?” That confusion continues throughout the scene. What we have here is a failure to communicate (which is the famous line delivered by Strother Martin in Cool Hand Luke, a story about another outsider).

Charlotte is also experiencing alienation. She goes to a Buddhist shrine that has chanting monks. She wanted to feel something, make a connection to this far-off culture. But, she retreats to her womb-like hotel room and says in a phone conversation that she couldn’t feel anything at this religious place. She tries to express her solitary pain in the phone call but the person on the other end is distracted. Charlotte cries afterwards, showing how desolate she feels. When John returns for a bit all he talks about is his experiences.

Bob watches TV in his room and with everything in Japanese, he can’t find any distraction from his being ill-at-ease in this foreign country. It is funny and upsetting when he watches an old clip of himself dubbed into Japanese.

Then comes the hysterical “Premium Fantasy” woman (Nao Asuka) scene. She is sent by one of Bob's hosts. She shows her exposed leg with thigh-high stockings, and it sounds like she wants him to “lip” them when she actually means “rip” them. It is supposed to be some strange sexual role-playing, as she falls to the floor as if not wanting to be touched and then wanting to be. Bob is confused and embarrassed by this awkward bit of miscommunication.

Bob eats breakfast alone, but Charlotte is just as solitary walking anonymously in a crowd. Bob goes to a photo shoot for stills for the whiskey promotion. He makes jokes since the direction he receives sounds strange to him. For example, he is told to act like “007,” but he comments that James Bond drinks martinis. The director asks for “more,” or does he mean Roger Moore? More (pun intended) confusion.

Bob again seeks refuge in the hotel bar where the lounge singer (Catherine Lambert) performs in an overly dramatic manner. She sings American songs in a way that is not comforting to the visitors. Bob and Charlotte exchange amused looks and gestures across the room concerning the singing. In contrast to what has happened to them so far, there is a connection between them that doesn’t even require words. She is at a table with her husband and others but feels uninvolved with their words. She sends over what looks like sake to the appreciative Bob.

There are several funny quick scenes which show the effects of feeling out of touch with the surroundings. One such slapstick bit occurs when Bob gets caught on a runaway elliptical machine which he can’t control since it only responds to Japanese commands.

John runs into a previous photo client, a flirtatious actress named Kelly (Anna Faris). The two talk and Charlotte looks like she isn’t even there, which shows how one can be left out of the loop even when one’s own language is spoken. Kelly is going under the name “Evelyn Waugh,” which, as Charlotte notes to John, is the name of a male writer. The scene shows how inaccurate language can be if ignorance is involved.

After both can’t sleep and or find anything desirable on TV, Bob (who tries to talk to the bartender who wanders off – again no communication) and Charlotte meet in the hotel bar and begin to talk. When she asks what he is doing there, he is very frank, probably aching, despite his glibness, to connect with someone. He says he is “taking a break from his wife,” and has forgotten his son’s birthday. He is getting paid two million dollars instead of doing a play, which shows how he is admitting to being an artistic sellout. He says the “whiskey works,” so he can get a laugh to soften his opening confessional remarks. She notes that his twenty-five years of marriage is “impressive,” but he deflates her admiration by saying one sleeps one third of an individual’s life, so that brings it down to “sixteen and change.” As IMDb notes, Charlotte finds her husband and later others of her age as being superficial. She is intelligent and searching for answers, as she went to the Buddhist shrine and listens to an audio book about finding one’s true self. Perhaps that is why an older man, like Bob, might have more to offer. He says that when one is young and gets married, “you can drive but there’s still the occasional accident,” which can give hope to someone younger who is having marital questions. She notes that he may be having a “mid-life crisis.” She says that her major was philosophy,” the impractical study of a questioning youth. The older, cynical Bob says, “There’s a lot of money in that racket.” Instead of being upset she jokes by saying so far it’s been “pro bono.” They are beginning to understand each other.

Charlotte decides to go with John to the bar for a meet-up with Kelly. He is reluctant because he knows she doesn’t connect with Kelly, but she wants to spend some time with her husband. The conversation is vapid, including Kelly’s urging to have a “power cleanse.” Charlotte tells a DJ there talking about hip-hop music that she doesn’t know what he is talking about, which pretty much sums up her situation. Charlotte eyes Bob at the bar, who pretends to fall over, as if channeling what she is going through. She walks over to him, and he tells her he is “trying to organize a prison break,” to basically get out of the country. He wants an accomplice, and she says she is “in.” The scene is funny, but it also reveals how they feel trapped by their respective lives.

The soundtrack has a muted, dreamy feel to it, which reflects the unreal sense of being in a faraway land. Bob and Charlotte both use the hotel pool, and those familiar with The Graduate and Ordinary People know how that water experience can symbolize drifting with no direction. Charlotte asks Bob if he wants to come out with her to see some of her friends that live in Japan. He had said that he would be spending the week in the bar, another form of being lost in a liquid environment, so her invitation may be a wish to rescue him.

On the night out they are very relaxed with each other except when Bob arrives at Charlotte’s room. She notes how loud his shirt is by again mentioning his mid-life crisis. He goes into her bathroom and takes off his shirt to turn it inside out. Charlotte looks away, a bit embarrassed by this quick show of intimacy. The party with Charlotte’s Japanese friend, nicknamed Charlie Brown (Fumihiro Hayashi), has all young people there. Despite the age difference and even though there is still the language barrier, Bob has fun because he is with a kindred soul. When Charlotte sings her song, Bob repeats the word “special” as he looks at her. When he sings, he turns to her, as if dedicating his song to her. (When Murray sings karaoke, it brings up memories of his singing on Saturday Night Live). When she goes outside the room for a smoke break, Bob joins her and again they communicate without talking as he takes a drag from her cigarette and she leans her head on his shoulder showing how comfortable they have become with each other. When they get back to the hotel Charlotte is asleep and Bob carries her to her room. He tucks her in and there is a conflicting look on his face as she closes her eyes to go to sleep, which may be part lustful and part parental.

Bob seeks an affectionate connection with his wife on the phone as he shares what happened during the evening. She sent him carpet samples earlier and he says he thinks her choice was the best, but he doesn’t care about something so mundane. He just wants to attempt to reconnect with her. She hangs up before she can hear him say, “I love you.” They are out of sync in their time zones (she is getting up to take the kids to school and it’s the middle of the night for him) and in their feelings.

More great dialogue ensues when they go to a sushi restaurant. Bob again notes the culture clash when he says his shiatsu massage replaced his muscle tightness with “unbelievable pain.” She stubbed her toe, and he looks at it, saying it appears “dead” and he can’t allow her to put it “back in the shoe.” He says either she goes to a doctor or she must leave the toe there. He calls it “black toe,” and suggests they might serve it at the restaurant, exaggerating the type of food the Japanese eat. He employs fractured English and calls it “brack toe.” (There is a lapse in political correctness in the film since he uses the difference in cultures to elicit humor. However, there are beautiful scenes involving religious, social and marriage rituals).

Bob takes Charlotte to a hospital and again there is no understanding what the information clerk says so they must wing it even when it comes to a health issue. There was a good deal of improvisation in the film, because, after all, you have Murray to work with. As he waits for Charlotte to be seen, Bob tries to imitate Japanese with a patient speaking to him in his native language. Bob’s responses are so off the mark that there are two ladies in the background getting hysterical as they listen to Bob’s fractured Japanese. One of my favorite playful lines in the film occurs after Charlotte gets an x-ray of her toe (where, of course, she has no idea what the doctor is saying). Bob is waiting for her with a huge stuffed penguin doll. She asks if it’s for her and he says, “Yeah, it can be for you,” acting as if he bought it for himself.

Despite their bonding, there are several scenes still where Bob and Charlotte are by themselves, looking for diversion from their loneliness. Bob plays golf by himself, and Charlotte looks at pictures of herself and John, which suggests that she only has memories of how nice it once was between her and her husband. It could be that she sees Bob’s failing marriage as a foreshadowing of her own marital collapse.

Charlotte calls Bob and says he can meet her and Charlie and his friends at a club. It turns out to be a strip club and there is an almost naked woman contorting her body to the sounds of a sexually explicit song. When Charlotte arrives she asks where Charlie is. Bob hysterically says he is taking “dance lessons,” as she sees Charlie ogling the woman dancer. She wants to leave and again Bob is on the same page as her even if their surroundings are not.

Both still have insomnia, and given how long this inability to sleep has been going on it indicates the depth of their alienation. They spend time in Bob’s room. He notes her sadness since he has hardly seen her smile. Charlotte demonstrates her perplexity with the Japanese language, and Bob jokes that the locals switch the r’s and the l’s for “yuks” since the natives are not amused by the foreigners. When in doubt, he goes for the laughs to make it easier to deal with unknowable stuff. She says, “Let’s never come here again because it would never be as much fun.” Her line says so much. It shows how she is enjoying his company. It also indicates that she sees them as not ending their relationship because it points to future experiences together. However, it also shows how some joy is fleeting, and can never be recaptured.

They lie in bed next to each other and have a serious conversation. She says she is “stuck,” not knowing what she wants to be. She tried writing and photography, and felt she wasn’t measuring up. She wants to know if finding yourself gets easier. He reassures her that once she matures she will be more self-assured. She appreciates his honesty about how “hard” marriage can be since his wife used to need him around and now she doesn’t. He frankly admits that having kids is scary, but eventually is very rewarding. They are emotionally intimate, and the only physical contact occurs when he touches her foot, and this act is sweet and tender.

Originally, Bob wanted to get out of the country as soon as possible and that is why he didn’t want to do a talk show in Tokyo. But he now says he will extend his stay and do the show since he doesn’t want to leave Charlotte any sooner than he must. The talk show host is very over-the-top, wearing clothes that look like he stole the material from an awning. He does a strange welcoming dance and Bob, as usual, looks like he walked through the looking glass into a strange new world.

Bob receives a call from his wife while he is in a tile tub filled with water. She says the burgundy carpet he liked is not in stock and he should pick out another color. He says she should pick it out because, “I’m completely lost.” When she implies that he is making a big deal over a carpet color he says, “That’s not what I’m talking about.” We know he’s talking about his whole life. He says he wants to eat healthier the way the Japanese do. She snidely says he could stay in Japan and eat like that all the time. When he asks about the children, she again is on the offensive, saying they are getting used to not having their father around. After they hang up Bob sinks below the water, symbolically showing his marriage is also in jeopardy of going under water.

In the bar, the lounge singer sits next to Bob, smiles at him and says “Hi.” The next scene is Bob in bed and the singer is in his room, showing that they spent the night together. Bob does not look happy about what he has done, implying it was not the answer to his feeling of loneliness. Charlotte surprises Bob at his door asking if he wants to go to a restaurant. She hears the woman singing to herself in the background, and this discovery leads to Bob and Charlotte’s first “accident,” as Bob would say, on their relationship road. At the restaurant they are both sullen. She is sarcastic when she says it makes sense that he slept with the singer since, “she is closer” in age to him (than Charlotte, is the implication). She is jealous, and says, “Maybe she liked the movies you were making in the ‘70’s, when you were still making movies.” Her comment takes a shot at how old he is and suggests that he is a has-been. He retaliates by suggesting she is showing immature narcissism when he says, “Wasn’t there anyone else there to lavish you with attention?” Charlotte’s feeling “lost” is signified by her not being able to tell the difference between the offerings on the menu. Their very brief estrangement is seen in the fact that they are now silent.

A fire alarm wakes them up and while waiting outside Bob’s comic stance as he wears his kimono brings a smile to Charlotte’s face. They again bond as they criticize having to cook their own food at the restaurant. He’s leaving the next day and she says that she will miss him. At the bar, he admits he doesn’t want to leave. She says, “So don’t. Stay here with me. We’ll start a jazz band.” They are revealing their feelings for each other more openly now. The “jazz band” reference could show how they are in rebellion against what is around them, including the mediocre music that has been playing in the bar. They exchange a slightly off the lips kiss goodnight.

Charlotte says goodbye to him in the lobby unable to show a public display of affection despite Bob’s extended longing stare at her since there are a bunch of local people present who were attached to Bob’s visit. As he is driven away, he sees Charlotte walking in the street. He stops the car, and they share an extended hug and a long kiss. He whispers to her, and she says, “Okay.” There has been debate about what he says. But that isn’t the point. It is between them, a final act of connection in a disconnected world. The last shots are from the inside of the car, and we get Bob’s perspective as he now wishes he didn’t have to leave a city he first didn’t want to visit.

The next film is The Big Lebowski.

The Man Who Wasn't There

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The Coen brothers made this 2001 movie in the tradition of other film noir movies. It is set in 1949 to point to a time when Hollywood produced stories in this genre. It contains certain elements that fit these types of stories, including a seedy view of humanity with people caught in a web of deceit and criminal activity, filmed in atmospheric black and white. But this motion picture also contains elements of existential philosophy which allows it to reflect on the human predicament.

The main character is Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton). As he readily admits, he is “the barber,” (which would have been another good title for this film). The first shot in the movie is that of a barber pole, spinning its red and white stripes repeatedly, with no final purpose achieved.  In a way, that Sisyphus activity mirrors the lives of the characters. In existential philosophy, a person is in “bad faith” if he or she defines oneself as something external, because it denies the subjective, self-reflecting complexity of the human individual. In the film, for the most part, people don’t remember Ed’s name. If they remember him at all they only know him as “the barber.” That is why to others, as an individual, he is the man who wasn’t there.

The storytelling irony here is that Ed hardly ever speaks outwardly, but the whole tale is told by him, solely from his point of view, in a voice-over (we later find out that a magazine paid him to tell his story), which actually reveals through his observations that he is more than just his job. But his lack of engagement with others, his lack of surface emotion, makes him look like a sleepwalker, which emphasizes Ed’s alienation, his outsider status in society. Since we are restricted to identify with Ed through his narration, the audience, feels set apart from the rest of Ed’s world, too. His taciturn personality is highlighted by the fact that the other men he associates with, co-worker, Frank (Michael Badalucco), Big Dave Brewster (James Gandolfini), Creighton Tolliver (Jon Polito), and lawyer Freddy Riedenschneider (Tony Shalhoub) seem to never shut up. (Even the replacement barber Ed hires later in the movie talks all day long). Ed’s blank, glum appearance is indicative of the pessimistic, negative world in which he lives.

That doomed, helpless outlook shows up in various ways. Frank, reading the news, says the Russians exploded an atomic bomb, and “we can’t do a thing about it.” Ed, talking about where he lives, says his home is a bungalow, which has basic appliances, like a garbage disposal. After the description, he comments, “Guess you could say I had it made.” It is a sad assessment of what the working class is supposed to be satisfied with. The first shot of Ed’s wife, Doris (Frances McDormand), shows her checking out how she looks in her undergarments. Her make-up is important to her. In an interview, McDormand said that Doris, who is from a peasant Italian background, wanted to have glamour in her life, but with time, that hope faded. She finds solace in her appearance and her job as an accountant at the Nirdlinger department store, the place which sells glamorous things. She also relishes in the attention paid to her by Big Dave, her boss. He likes to tell stories about his heroic actions in the war, which contrasts with Doris’ boring life, and which makes Big Dave an appealing character to her. Ed says that he and Doris go to church each week, which sounds like maybe they at least have religion to provide an uplifting feeling. But he quickly follows up by saying that they attend the weekly bingo game. He says Doris didn’t believe in life-everlasting, and that bingo was the height of existence. Life here is cynical and uninspired.

Ed doesn’t even find bingo enjoyable. He doesn’t feel the need to “entertain” guests, though Doris still invites Big Dave and his wide-eyed wife, Ann (Katherine Borowitz) to dinner. (Despite Big Dave’s big talk, he runs the store because it is owned by his wife’s family, so he hasn’t really achieved his position on his own). The way that Doris pays attention to Big Dave, the way she laughs at his jokes, makes Ed suspect that the two are having an affair. But Ed is so detached from life that the infidelity doesn’t phase him, as he says, “It’s a free country.” Ed is a passive individual. He became a barber by “marrying” into the job. Frank is Doris’ brother and owns the barbershop. However, when Tolliver walks in as a customer, and talks about looking for an investor (after someone locally pulled out of the deal) in a new invention, “dry cleaning,” Ed’s first response is that the man is probably running a scam, but this time he questions that maybe his negative attitude toward life has relegated him to just being “the barber.” He contemplates changing from being passive to becoming proactive.

We then have a scene where Doris sits in a tub, self-absorbed in reading a magazine. She doesn’t even look at Ed, but asks him to shave her legs. He dutifully does so, and this grooming act is as close to intimacy that occurs between these two, with Ed having to do the barber job even in his own home. While still reading, Doris says without feeling, “love you,” as if uttering an obligatory afterthought of thanks. Perhaps Ed then goes to Tolliver after realizing how unrewarding life is for him after this episode. Tolliver doesn’t even recognize Ed without his smock, which again shows Ed’s sole identification is that of being a barber. Ed at first doesn’t trust Tolliver because in his world one is suspicious of anything being positive. Ed initially sees the wig-wearing, salesman personality of Tolliver as a possible swindler. But Tollier is legitimate, and offers a fifty/fifty split of the profits with Ed, who needs to get $10,000 dollars to invest. Tolliver in contrast to Ed and Doris, is an optimist, and says when one door closes (the man who declined the investment) another door opens, in the person of Ed. As we see later, this positive attitude is punished, not rewarded in this environment. It is appropriate that Ed will be a “silent partner,” given his quiet nature. Ed’s plan is to monetarily exploit his own wife’s affair by anonymously blackmailing Big Dave and getting him to pay the ten grand.

We then get a scene with Ed and Frank in the barbershop, and Ed seemingly talking nonsense about hair. Ed observes how the hair just keeps growing and they have to keep cutting it. His statement reminds us of the barber pole’s repetitive movement with no end purpose. He is voicing an existential view of the absurdity of life, which he finds unsavory. That is why he says he wants to mix the cut hair with dirt, showing his disgust with his perception of his life as being part of the pointless cyclical nature of existence.

Doris drags Ed to an after-hours party at the store where she works. Big Dave takes him aside and confesses his plight to Ed. Big Dave was the one who pulled out of Tolliver’s deal, and he believes that the dry cleaning entrepreneur is the blackmailer, since the blackmail note asks for the same amount that Tolliver wanted for the investment. Big Dave figures Tolliver saw him with the woman he was carrying on with at the hotel where Tolliver was staying. Of course, Big Dave doesn’t admit that it is Doris he was with. Supposed war hero Big Dave shows he is not really the courageous guy to look up to, and his pathetic crying in this scene adds to the negative outlook presented in the film. The scene also demonstrates that Ed’s deceitful action has negative domino-like repercussions, since Big Dave won’t be able to open up the new store with Doris in charge, and Big Dave’s wife, Ann, will be hurt if her husband’s cheating is exposed. He will lose everything, since it is his wife’s store that employs him.

The next scene is a fitting contrast to what has just happened. Ed comes across a teenage girl, whose nickname is Birdie (Scarlett Johansson), playing classical music on a store piano. Ed is drawn to her talent. She, unlike others, remembers his name, seeing him as an individual. For Ed, she represents the hope for the future that innocent youth might be capable of, and which contrasts with the adult sordid, depressing existence in which Ed finds himself inhabiting. Her name implies that she could soar above those hopeless individuals that populate Ed’s world, including Ed himself. It’s possible that her nickname could awaken Ed’s own ability to fly, represented by his last name, Crane, so that he could rise above everyday dreariness.

After Big Dave leaves the money at a drop, Ed seals the deal by signing Tolliver’s business papers. After Ed and Doris attend an Italian wedding on a farm, Doris is reminded of how little she has distanced herself from her unglamorous upbringing and gets drunk. Her negativity about life is expressed when she is sarcastic to the young married couple, saying, “Life is so goddamn wonderful you almost won’t believe it. It’s a bowl of goddamn cherries.” After returning home, Ed, watching his wife sleep it off, recounts how the two met on a blind double date. Even then she drank too much, probably trying to find escape from a unfulfilling life. She liked it that Ed didn’t talk much, and said after only two weeks that they get married. Ed suggested that maybe they might want to get to know more about each other first. Doris’ response was, “Why? Does it get better?” Her answer reinforces the unhappiness and lack of hope in her world.

In the middle of this story, Ed gets a call from Big Dave to meet him at his office in the store. It is late and they are the only two there. After Big Dave paid the blackmail money, he then decided to confront Tolliver when he started to suspect he was the person extorting him. He beat him until Tolliver told Big Dave that he got his money from Ed and wasn’t a blackmailer. Now Big Dave realizes that Ed knows about the affair with Doris and that Ed is ruining their lives for the dry cleaning opportunity. Big Dave attacks Ed, who is able to grab a letter opener in the struggle. He stabs Big Dave in the neck and Big Dave bleeds to death. Ed leaves and returns home, and unemotionally, finishes his story about how he and Doris met and were married. His lack of feelings even after causing the death of another person show how removed he is from life,.

Policemen come to the barbershop and Ed assumes they are there to arrest him, and he seems, again, to be passive and ready to meet his fate. However, the cops tell him that it is his wife who has been arrested for murder. She was cooking the books for Big Dave so he could embezzle funds and the authorities believe she killed him to cover up her complicity. Ed goes to Birdie’s father, the local lawyer, Walter Abundas (Richard Jenkins), for help. Walter admits to his incompetence and recommends another lawyer. Walter, like Doris, drinks too much, and spends hours doing genealogy research, his two forms of escape from the dreariness of his life. For Ed, his escape into a sense of peace occurs when he listens to Birdie’s music.

Ed visits Doris in jail. She has a black eye which shows the damage the incarceration is inflicting on her. He brings her makeup, which shows how Ed understands her need to hang onto her desire for “glamour,” which is almost impossible, given the circumstances. Because Ed does not admit his guilt in the death of Big Dave, he stops Doris from admitting her infidelity. In his mind maybe he thinks they’re even. After Frank mortgages the barbershop to pay for legal costs (another example of negative results resulting from wrong choices), Ed hires the accomplished lawyer that Walter recommends, Freddy Riedenschneider (a name that appears in The Asphalt Jungle, a Coen Brothers tip to the film noir genre). The movie presents a rather negative view of attorneys with this character. Freddy eats like a glutton at the best restaurant in town (symbolizing how he drains his clients), and stays in the most expensive room at the best hotel. He tells Ed he will be charging him tons of fees, including the cost of a private investigator. Freddy, as was said earlier, does all of the talking, and is condescending. He says to Ed, “I do the talking. You keep your trap shut. I’m an attorney. You’re a barber. You don’t know anything.” Ed once more is defined by his job, what the external world reduces him to.

Ed now finds himself even more alienated from life as he says, while watching people on the streets walking, that the recent events make him feel like he has “made it to the outside.” Big Dave’s wife, Ann, visits him, her eyes wider than ever, and tells Ed that she knows that Doris didn’t kill her husband. She relates this wild story about how, during a camping trip, Big Dave was abducted by aliens. She thinks his death is part of some type of government-extraterrestrial conspiracy. Life has become so absurd that people look for some type of explanation to bring meaning to existence, no matter how far-fetched, so as not to face the possibility that life may not have any absolute purpose.

Riedenschneider is not interested in truth. He just is concerned with strategy. He doesn’t care if Doris killed Big Dave, only that she didn’t confess to anything. In a meeting with the lawyer and Doris, Ed finally confesses to save Doris. But, the lawyer says that doesn’t work because there are no witnesses to back up his story of killing Big Dave, and it just looks like Ed is sacrificing himself for his wife. Ed tries to find Tolliver to back up his claims, but the man is missing. Riedenschneider, in another meeting, has a different plan, and it is an existential one. He references the scientific “Uncertainty Principle” (proposed by Werner Heisenberg) which says that just by observing something, you change it’s reality. He says, “the more you look, the less you really know. It’s a fact, a true fact. In a way, it’s the only fact there is.” The lawyer’s private detective found out that Big Dave was an office clerk during the war, so he was a phony when holding himself out to the community as a war hero. The argument here is, the more you look at something, more doubt presents itself. For Riedenschneider, that translates to “reasonable doubt.” He argues that someone who knew of Big Dave’s service record may have been blackmailing him. Who that person may be can’t be known, because nothing that is scrutinized can ever reveal the whole truth. He presents a world that is without understanding, which is as noir as film can get. The trial never takes place, because Doris takes her own life. Ed later finds out from a cop that Doris was pregnant with Big Dave’s child. Perhaps that fact and how far her life had turned for the worse brought her to suicide (like I said - not a happy world we have here.)

Ed says he was now “like a ghost,” the man who isn’t there. His reality as a person is vanishing, and that is why he says of himself that his only existence was tied to the fact that he “was the barber.” He, like Ann, looks for answers somewhere.  He reads about UFO’s, and goes to a medium, who he realizes is a phony, which just reinforces his pessimism about living. After a music competition, he sees Birdie with a young boy, and Ed is intimidating toward the youth. It’s as if he wants to keep Birdie pure, untainted by growing up, which would include sexual experiences, so that he could save her from another life “going down the drain.” He takes Birdie to a musical expert, but this man dashes Ed’s hopes, saying that Birdie is a nice girl, but ordinary, and might make a good “typist.” On the drive home, Ed can’t face more mediocrity, and says the music teacher is wrong. But, he has projected onto Birdie his own hope. The girl admits that she really has no ambition to become a pianist. She is very grateful to Ed, and proceeds to try to thank him by performing oral sex on him. Her fall from grace in Ed’s eyes surprises and literally damages him as he gets into a car accident.

Birdie sustains a broken collar bone. While unconscious in the hospital, Ed remembers an episode with Doris dismissing a salesman and looking at Ed with disappointment because Ed didn’t get rid of the man. They sit on their couch and say nothing. Even Ed’s memories are disappointing. Ed wakes up to discover he is being arrested for killing Tolliver. The submerged car with Tolliver inside was discovered by a young boy who was swimming. The business documents that Ed signed were with Tolliver. The police think that Tolliver found out that Doris stole money for the deal, and Ed killed him to silence the man. Ed knows from Big Dave’s confession that he beat Tolliver, and so he was the one who killed Tolliver and dumped the body.

Ed mortgages his house and hires Riedenschneider to defend him, at least until the money runs out, and then so does the lawyer. But while being Ed’s attorney, he offers more existential arguments about the unknowability of life. Ed says his attorney told the jurors, “to look not at the facts, but at the meaning of the facts. The he said the facts had no meaning.” He argues that Ed was no murderer, because he was too “ordinary” to commit such an act. He was just a barber. And being ordinary, he was “modern man,” like the jurists, and they would, in a sense, be finding themselves guilty. He paints a bleak picture of existence. But Frank interrupts the proceedings with an impassioned anger against Ed for bringing about the death of his sister. There is a mistrial, and with Riedenschneider now gone, a judge, who has no compassion for Ed’s situation, sentences him to death. The legal system obviously is a failure here: Doris kills herself and her unborn child after being imprisoned for a crime she did not commit; Ed is sentenced to death for killing the wrong man.

Just before his execution, Ed is now in the chair instead of a customer, and someone is shaving him instead, to inject lethal drugs. It appears that he can’t escape the barber scenario while in this world. Knowing that he is about to die, Ed now feels completely free in a way from the ties that bind people to everyday life. He lives up to his name as a “crane” flying above it all, gaining a larger perspective. He says, “It’s like pulling away from the maze. While you’re in the maze, you go through willy nilly, turning where you think you have to turn, banging into the dead ends.” But seeing it whole gives him some peace.” He also says that in death, “Maybe the things I don’t understand will be clearer there, like when a fog blows away.” For some of those who try to find ultimate meaning while alive in this world, life may only offer a limited view of the road ahead.

The next film is The Natural.