Inside Llewyn Davis
Director: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Cary Mulligan, John Goodman
Length: 105 minutes
Country: USA
Inside Llewyn Davies is clearly a Coen brothers film, yet in many ways a welcome stylistic departure. It shares the musical element of O Brother Where Art Thou, the artist’s-struggle scenario of Barton Fink and Fargo’s exploration of male ineptitude, but it is a different picture to all three in as many respects as it is similar to them. Although there are light touches of the Coens’ usual, idiosyncratic humour, generally the tone of the film is uncharacteristically melancholic and morose.
We follow the struggle of ‘60s folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) as he fails to navigate his way out of the Greenwich Village folk scene into professionalism. The scarcity of plot sees the narrative wander as aimlessly as Llewyn does through the streets of New York, striking a contrast with many of the Coens’ intricately layered neo-noir plots. Far from making the story dull, the movie’s narrative drift serves to characterize its protagonist as lost and directionless, and overall allows for an emotional depth that many of the Coens’ previous features lack.
The score’s variation in mood and the conviction with which the songs are not only sung, but acted, give the musical moments of the film an emotional diversity that contrasts with the sombre tone struck by the scenes of dialogue. On ‘Please, Mr. Kennedy’, the film’s most vibrant and feel-good song, the enthusiasm of Llewyn’s head jerks and the pleasure in his expression as he plays externalise his relief. Llewyn’s interactions with people are rendered monotonous and destructive in comparison to his empowerment by music; focalising this contrast through his perspective so subtly is one of the film’s greatest achievements, strengthened by the quality of Oscar Isaac’s performance. Isaac, working with a typically brilliant Coen Brothers script, is able to effortlessly convey a sense of sheer excitement as he receives a call to hit the studio for a recording session, a rare moment of hope. Llewyn’s preference of sound to people is expressed sonically, with the noise of a train overpowering the dialogue as he experiences perhaps his only real stroke of luck. Contrastingly, he comes across as cold in many conversations; Llewyn is closest to apathy when being called an ‘asshole’. Isaac magnificently balances such displays of disaffection with more pronounced emotional flourishes, producing a character difficult to both like and dislike.
Inside Llewyn Davis is a sincere character study, its protagonist perhaps the most serious man the Coens have portrayed.
Carey Mulligan is less successful in her role as Llweyn’s friend. She over-plays her displays of anger and resentment to the effect that her character Jean becomes an unfortunately one-dimensional character. Given the Coens’ history of memorable, rounded female characters, this lack of depth seems more likely to be the fault of the actress than the screenwriters. Justin Timberlake, though sometimes unconvincing, in many ways compensates for Mulligan’s flaws as Jean’s husband Jim. His subtle hints at tension toward Llewyn and greater versatility as a vocal performer (Timberlake recorded the bass part to ‘The Auld Triangle’, which is ostensibly sung by Mulligan) overshadow her underwhelming turn.
Bruno Delbonnel’s cinematography does much to polish over the cracks of the acting, imbuing the relaxed compositions with a gorgeously placid visual quality. Inside Llewyn Davis is one of the Coens’ least stylized films, but the minimal lighting and unsaturated colour palette lend it a melancholic, lo-fi aesthetic that serves the low-key narrative action perfectly.
Inside Llewyn Davis is a sincere character study, its protagonist perhaps the most serious man the Coens have portrayed (even more than A Serious Man). But the musicality and humorous narrative strands – Llewyn’s inept looking after of a neighbour’s cat – ensure that the film is by no means heavy. Rather, Inside Llewyn Davis is a fresh-feeling departure not only from the Coens’ archetypal fare, but also from the deep and weighty features that have beaten it criminally to award nominations this season. In the shadow of such films, I imagine Inside Llewyn Davis might get overlooked, but I would strongly recommend this gentler but by no means less worthy film as a welcome alternative to the hard-hitting drama that dominates the awards season cinema listings.
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