Review – Barton Fink

Though not as good as some of their earlier and later work, this is still a respectable outing from the Coen brothers. A successful playwright from New York (John Turturro) gets lured to Hollywood to work on the script for a B movie about wrestlers. The studio sets him up in an odd hotel where he meets a travelling salesman (John Goodman). Things get stranger and stranger until finally the whole thing collapses in a climax that would have been genuinely chilling if it hadn’t been so contrived and bizarre. Turturro himself is a big part of the problem. He plays the protagonist as flat, aloof and neurotic, which makes him unsympathetic. It’s hard not to respond to his plight with, “Of course the world seems weird to you, weirdo.” Overall it’s a stylish little indie pic with at least some of the Coens’ usual charm. It just takes a back seat to their less forcefully artistic work. Mildly amusing