In the run up to the release of the eagerly anticipated True Grit, I thought it time to catch up with those Coen Brothers films I had yet to see. Made in their formative years, Raising Arizona is the second Coen film, following up the largely decent Blood Simple.
In and out of prison for armed robbery a number of times over a period of some years, repeat offender "Hi" McDunnough begins to gradually fall for police photographer "Ed". After Hi vows to reform, they marry and decide to have children. Upon discovering the infertility of Ed, they opt to steal one of five babies born to local furniture salesman Nathan Arizona.
Any film which numbers Nicolas Cage among its cast is a big risk for me. The man is one of those actors whose presence almost always signifies a terrible film to come. The combination of this bearing the Coen stamp and being the first Cage film I'd seen since Adaptation—in which he is, dare I say it, bearable—assuaged my fears and allowed me to sit back with hope intact. The film's opening is rapid in pace, though not too much of a fault: it's a little distracting, and feels a tad rushed, but it's no serious problem. The humour—for this is a comedy, in case you're unaware—starts relatively strong, an extended scene in which Hi attempts to control the quintuplets whilst choosing which to steal particularly humorous. Had the credits rolled immediately thereafter, I would've been happy. But they don't, alas. What follows is just over an hour of completely misguided humour, bare caricatures, and that most hated of "comedy" clichés: the parody of deep-South life. To call it an uncomfortable viewing experience would be an understatement, my eyes trained on the DVD player "time elapsed" display as my fingers drummed on the chair, waiting for it all to end. Other than in the first half hour, I genuinely don't think as much as a brief chuckle escaped my mouth. The characters are irritating, underdeveloped, uninteresting, and uninvolving (the bounty hunter biker caused me no end of sighs and wails of despair). I now remember, if you'll permit me something of a tangential thought, that I did in fact laugh twice: once each for Frances McDormand and John Goodman, both of whom are amongst the painfully few good things the film has to offer. Though that said, the scene wherein Goodman emerges from mud vexed me with its silly shouting. As if I wasn't disappointed and disgusted enough with the film as a whole, to return to things, the ending is utterly revolting garbage which attempts, in a most upsetting way, to sanitise what has gone before with paint-by-numbers sentiment. Simply infuriating.
Raising Arizona, you may have noticed, was not quite for me. Almost entirely devoid of humour, characters, or any shred of likability, it is a welcome edition to the Nic Cage canon. I think it possible that I'd have hated this less were it not a Coen Brothers film—not, that is to say, that I'm the kind of person who decided that the brothers were the saviours of American cinema after seeing No Country for Old Men—simply that all I'd seen by them prior to this had been at least quite quite good. In summary, do try to avoid this.
In and out of prison for armed robbery a number of times over a period of some years, repeat offender "Hi" McDunnough begins to gradually fall for police photographer "Ed". After Hi vows to reform, they marry and decide to have children. Upon discovering the infertility of Ed, they opt to steal one of five babies born to local furniture salesman Nathan Arizona.
Any film which numbers Nicolas Cage among its cast is a big risk for me. The man is one of those actors whose presence almost always signifies a terrible film to come. The combination of this bearing the Coen stamp and being the first Cage film I'd seen since Adaptation—in which he is, dare I say it, bearable—assuaged my fears and allowed me to sit back with hope intact. The film's opening is rapid in pace, though not too much of a fault: it's a little distracting, and feels a tad rushed, but it's no serious problem. The humour—for this is a comedy, in case you're unaware—starts relatively strong, an extended scene in which Hi attempts to control the quintuplets whilst choosing which to steal particularly humorous. Had the credits rolled immediately thereafter, I would've been happy. But they don't, alas. What follows is just over an hour of completely misguided humour, bare caricatures, and that most hated of "comedy" clichés: the parody of deep-South life. To call it an uncomfortable viewing experience would be an understatement, my eyes trained on the DVD player "time elapsed" display as my fingers drummed on the chair, waiting for it all to end. Other than in the first half hour, I genuinely don't think as much as a brief chuckle escaped my mouth. The characters are irritating, underdeveloped, uninteresting, and uninvolving (the bounty hunter biker caused me no end of sighs and wails of despair). I now remember, if you'll permit me something of a tangential thought, that I did in fact laugh twice: once each for Frances McDormand and John Goodman, both of whom are amongst the painfully few good things the film has to offer. Though that said, the scene wherein Goodman emerges from mud vexed me with its silly shouting. As if I wasn't disappointed and disgusted enough with the film as a whole, to return to things, the ending is utterly revolting garbage which attempts, in a most upsetting way, to sanitise what has gone before with paint-by-numbers sentiment. Simply infuriating.
Raising Arizona, you may have noticed, was not quite for me. Almost entirely devoid of humour, characters, or any shred of likability, it is a welcome edition to the Nic Cage canon. I think it possible that I'd have hated this less were it not a Coen Brothers film—not, that is to say, that I'm the kind of person who decided that the brothers were the saviours of American cinema after seeing No Country for Old Men—simply that all I'd seen by them prior to this had been at least quite quite good. In summary, do try to avoid this.