The Ladykillers (2004)

The Ladykillers: 2004, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen. Seen on DVD (Dec. 16).
Sometimes I worry that I am losing my sense of humor and fun. Everyone loves Napoleon Dynamite but me. I ran a Google search on Buca di Beppo after writing the previous entry and yeah, everyone seems to think that it is a wonderfully fun place with decent food, except for me. I have tried to watch the TV shows “Arrested Development” and “Scrubs” and didn’t laugh. Am I turning into a humorless old grouch?
But I watched The Ladykillers this week and let me tell you, I laughed my ass off. That is some funny and weird movie. I liked it better than the original, which is an Ealing comedy and classic and so I am probably committing some sort of heresy, but I don’t care. (My review of the 1955 original is here.) The 2004 movie was routinely panned by critics, and no one went to see it, and it seems to be generally considered a flop. But I enjoyed it immensely.

The plot is very similar to the 1955 movie, which starred Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers. A group of criminal wanna-bes plans a big heist while disguising themselves as musicians in the home of a sweet little old lady. When the heist goes wrong and the little old lady finds out, the criminals realize they’re going to have to get rid of her (thus the title). And how difficult can it be for a group of grown men with criminal tendencies to bump off one little old lady?
The filmmakers moved the setting of The Ladykillers from 1950s England to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in contemporary times. The frail little old lady is now played by the robust Irma P. Hall, who could slap your face off. Guiness’s odd little con man has become Professor G. H. Dorr, played by Tom Hanks. Instead of robbing a bank, they rob a riverboat casino by digging a tunnel in the old lady’s basement.
I am trying to figure out why no one liked this movie very much. It can’t simply be that they were all too devoted to the original, because not that many people would have known about the original.
I can see several difficulties. For one thing, it is a very dark comedy (I’m not sure I like the term “comedy noir” and I don’t think it quite applies here either) and dark comedies, the kind in which death is funny, are not very popular nowadays.
The movie suffers from the same problem as the Coens’ Intolerable Cruelty, although to a lesser extent: the plot suddenly shifts from lighter comedy into the potential death of characters we have come to like and turns a little too dark too quickly. That works with something naturally strange like Barton Fink but this movie seems a little too mainstream for that.
Or perhaps the bad guys are too sympathetic. They’re quirky but also likeable. The point is supposed to be that it’s okay that they die because after all, they were trying to kill old Miz Munson—they’re killers themselves, at least potentially, and also criminals. But it doesn’t quite work that way, because they’re not exactly eager to kill the old lady, and some of them refuse, and they die anyway. (There was no good reason for Mountain Girl to die, except that she had a silly name and a sillier appearance.)
The ending of the movie is not exactly upbeat, considering the fate of the criminals and the ultimate fate of the loot (unless you are a huge fan of Bob Jones University). And yet, Miz Munson is so happy that it seems upbeat anyway.
Also, the beginning of the movie is somewhat confusing. In a series of scenes, the film introduces all the future members of Dorr’s gang, but we don’t know that this is why these scenes are occurring. The scenes are disconnected and there are no clues about which person we should be paying attention to in each scene. It would work in something like Ocean’s Eleven because the actors are so well-known, but these are character actors who blend in a little too well. Tom Hanks and Marlon Wayans are the only ones we recognize instantly. (I also recognized Stephen Root, but I didn’t think he’d have a major role.)
However, while I was confused, I was also enjoying these scenes because they are extremely funny and odd. The dog in the gas mask. The thwarted robbers. The football game from Lump’s point of view. I figured someone would explain it all eventually, and in the meantime, what I was watching was a hoot.
The Ladykillers is a wonderful collection of hilarious scenes, but the movie itself doesn’t hold together as a whole. As my boyfriend pointed out, there’s one huge gaping plot hole—when the old lady finds out about the heist, why don’t the guys just escape with the loot anyway? The reason is supposedly because she knows all their names, but that much money can buy a lot of false identity. The other reason is perhaps that they’re not very bright, but it’s still a weakness in the plot. The real reason, of course, is so they are forced to consider killing the old lady, but it’s not sufficiently necessary.
But I didn’t care. This movie had almost no slow points, unlike the 1955 movie, which seemed to me to drag terribly at times. I also had trouble distinguishing some of the characters in the 1955 movie, which is not the case here. Every actor creates a memorable character. Again, this presents a problem because they are a little too likeable to deserve their fates, but for the most part it’s quite entertaining.
I also want to mention the gospel music in the movie, which is appropriate and enjoyable. Perhaps the Coens and T-Bone Burnett were hopingthis movie would do for gospel music what O Brother, Where Art Thou? did for hillbilly music. It’s a shame it didn’t.
Irma P. Hall, as the little old lady, steals every scene she’s in, even from Tom Hanks in his white suit and Southern accent, even from Marlon Wayans. I hope someone gives her an award for this role; it was fine and funny and first-rate.
Marlon Wayans is also great. I loved the scene in the office with Stephen Root, where he is being fired for “fraternization with casino guests,” and tried to explain that it wasn’t his fault, it was because of this girl’s amazing ass. It reminded me a lot of Zero Mostel in The Front, explaining that he attended a Communist rally only to impress this girl with the big ass. I can’t decide which scene was funnier.
And I got the biggest kick out of the poem that Professor Dorr recites to Miz Munson and later to her group of little old lady friends. It is an Edgar Allen Poe poem, “To Helen,” but that’s not how I knew it. It is also “the phoney poem” that Dennis recites to Aimee in The Loved One, changing the name in the poem to “Aimee” so she’ll think he wrote it. When Dorr changes the name in the poem to suit the ladies, all I could think about was The Loved One, which I just reread over Thanksgiving.
The dialogue in this movie is very well-written, sharp, and on target, which is also a reason why I liked Intolerable Cruelty. No sloppy writing here. Dorr’s long wordy diatribes are hilarious, perfect for someone who might or might not be a professor.
You don’t want to see The Ladykillers because it’s a good heist film (it’s not) or because you liked Raising Arizona or even O Brother, Where Art Thou? You want to see The Ladykillers because you like dark comedies. You want to see these beautiful little scenes, each one an example of weird and wonderful comedy.
The hippety-hop. The slaps, which are so funny that the DVD includes extra features where you can see outtakes on the slap scenes, and see all the slaps at once. The conjugation of the verb “to smite.” The finger. The cat. The portrait of the late Mr. Munson. My favorite line, “You brought your bitch to the Waffle Hut!” which, considering my boyfriend’s feelings about the Waffle House, is a line I suspect will creep permanently into our vocabulary. Also, I will probably have to restrain him from quoting, “Madam, we must have waffles! We must all have waffles forthwith!” the next time we go there. The best parts of The Ladykillers are the details.
And you see, I do too have a sense of humor. Nyah.