What do you get when you combine a jealous hitman, a cheating wife, a crime that spins way out of control, and a few murders along the way? Answer: A film that is not so "simple" to categorize (as the world first learned when the Coen brothers debuted it in 1984), but is tremendously entertaining to watch. Blood Simple is not only fascinating to watch for the formidable talent it would introduce to the world, but for being a well executed take on the thriller/crime genre it and so much of the Coens' extensive body of work owes credit to.
When we first meet Abby (a young fresh-faced Frances McDormand) there is not the slightest inkling of anything wrong with her marriage to her husband Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya). Her love affair with one of her husband's employees is about to change all of that. Her rich, jealous husband hires a private investigator (M. Emmet Walsh) to tail the two, and eventually to murder them. The double crosses ensue however, when the private eye hatches a scheme of his own.
Blood Simple was probably the funnest time I had watching any of the Coen brothers' films this past month. It's fun to see it for what it was at the time (a genuninely clever thriller, albeit a flawed one), and for what it still is. There are so many memorable scenes that are worth the price of admission alone that I am inclined to list a few:
1. M. Emmet Walsh's character sneaks into the home of an unsuspecting Abby and her lover with nail-biting suspense.
2. John Getz' character lugs an assumingly dead Julian Marty down a dark and ominous highway only to find he's not as "dead" as he thought he was.
3. The last 15 minutes of the film: vintage Coens. Masterfully executed suspense with a breath-taking closing few frames. Disclaimer: If you have a healthy fear of knives or generally pointy objects, the last few minutes may make you squirm.
The film is far from perfect, but it is clear that Blood Simple was a forerunner to so many of the Coen bros. masterpieces. Barry Sonnenfeld's cinematography is honestly distracting at times, and I found little that would seperate it from the feel of Raizing Arizona. This seemed to be counter-productive to the mood that most of Blood Simple tries to convey. Pound for pound though, this film is much too fun to be swept aside as merely average. Performances are strong and the suspense is genunine. I suspect though that having been a fan before seeing the film, it might have been just too "simple" to please me. I would like to think not...
3.5/5
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