Member review

I went into watching Barton Fink with high expectations having enjoyed the Coen Brothers’ renowned and Academy Award winning creations ‘Fargo’, ‘No Country for Old Men’ and ‘True Grit’ and it’s fair to say, I wasn’t disappointed. The film includes its fair share of dramatic, exciting and shocking moments that keep you captivated for the entirety of the two hours running time. It incorporates so many elements of different genres: surrealism, detective, comedy and crime, it is therefore hard to definitively place it under one genre. That however is one of Barton Fink’s distinctive characteristics. The film is set pre-World War II America as we follow the title character (John Turturro), a successful playwright in his own right and his attempt to break into the harsh but potentially fruitful world of Hollywood. He is asked to write a conventional wrestling picture by quirky company executive Jack Lipnick played by Michael Lerner but suffers severely from writer’s block. Becoming anxious that his chance to make it in Hollywood is fading away, he goes back to writing about what he knows and loves to write about which is the ventures of the “common man”. Fink strikes up a close friendship with his next door neighbour, the likeable and droll Charlie Meadows (John Goodman) a character we are encouraged to take to heart. Goodman’s character becomes direct inspiration for Fink’s new script that we see him tapping away at in just one night on his typewriter. The cinematography courtesy of Roger Deakins at times is stunning, constructed and shot beautifully. The constant enigma the audience has is the great pleasure of Barton Fink, the constant foreshadowing of a surprising climax that certainly materialises. Certain scenes of the wallpaper peeling off in Fink’s room of the run down Hotel Earle and the interesting sound of mosquitos particularly epitomises this point. Overall the performances of the cast are very impressive, John Turturro stealing the show with his splendid performance as Barton. When Fink asks for advice from acclaimed writer W.P. Mayhew (John Mahoney), he soon discovers he isn’t all he’s cracked up to be. Every time we meet him in the film it seems as if he’s drunk and Fink falls for his secretary Audrey Taylor (played by the excellent Judy Davis) who is getting sick and tired of Mayhew’s drunken behaviour. Steve Buschemi’s brief cameo as hotel assistant Chet is a very amusing encounter. That’s the lovely twist to the film is the comedic elements that slot in nicely and certainly aren’t overdone. I would thoroughly recommend this film to Coen Brother’s fans (if you haven’t seen it yet, you should have done) and the average film fan