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Film noir from Joel and Ethan Coen set in California in the
1940s, about a reserved, unhappy barber (Billy Bob Thornton) who discovers that his wife
(Frances McDormand) has been unfaithful. He decides to teach her a lesson by coming up
with a blackmailing scheme, but his plan backfires and he becomes involved in murder and
suicide instead. Also with James Gandolfini, Michael Badalucco, Scarlett Johansson, Jon
Polito, Tony Shalhoub and Katherine Borowitz. [1:57]
SEX/NUDITY 4 - A young woman unzips a man's fly while he's driving and tries
to perform oral sex on him (we see her head moving toward his lap), he flinches and
resists. A woman is shown in a bathtub covered with bubbles (we see her bare shoulders and
chest); she asks her husband to shave her legs, which he does, and we see him massaging
the soap onto her lower leg. A woman is shown dressing and she's wearing a
girdle/foundation garment and stockings. A man alludes to his wife having an affair with
another man, and a man confesses that he's having an affair with a married woman. Men and
women are seen dancing at a party. A man zips up the back of a woman's dress. A man makes
a pass at another man by looking at him and gesturing with his eyes. There is a reference
to a married couple not having performed "the sex act" in many years, and
another reference to a man not having touched his wife in some time. There are several
references to a man being homosexual.
VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - A man grabs a man, throws him onto a desk, throws him into
a wall, punches him, shoves him into a window and begins choking him (he pushes him so
hard against the window that it cracks); the victim stabs the aggressor in the neck, and
he falls to the floor gurgling and writhing around until he dies, and we see a pool of
blood forming on the floor next to him. A man is found dead underwater in his car, and
there are references to his having been beaten to death first. A man is strapped into an
electric chair and prepared for execution, and we see another man reaching for the lever
to send the charge. There is a reference to a woman having hanged herself in prison and we
find out that she was pregnant. A young woman unzips a man's fly while he's driving and
tries to perform oral sex on him, he flinches and resists and drives off the road crashing
the car; we see the car sailing through the air, hear the crash and then see two people in
the wreckage (the man has some blood on his mouth). A man punches a man in the face and
knocks him to the floor. A man has cuts and bruises on his face after a car accident, and
a woman has a black eye and a scratch on her cheek, apparently after a fight in jail. A
man talks about having beaten another man. A man talks about an incident during his
service in the war: a soldier was apparently eaten by enemy soldiers. A man and woman are
shown in a drunken stupor (the man rides a large pig and falls off into the dirt and the
woman swaggers), and another man is shown inebriated a couple of times and he nearly
passes out both times. In a rather gross scene a pie eating contest ends with the
contestants covered with blueberries.
PROFANITY 4 - 1 scatological term, 3 anatomical terms, 1 sexual reference,
19 mild obscenities, 5 derogatory terms for the Japanese, 3 derogatory terms for Italians,
2 derogatory terms for Germans, 4 derogatory terms for homosexuals, 16 religious
profanities, 6 insults, 10 religious exclamations. [profanity glossary]
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Infidelity, blackmail, embezzlement, murder, UFOs,
government cover-ups, gambling, cannibalism, lying, venture capital, litigation,
entrepreneurs, instincts, death penalty, the electric chair, the uncertainty principle,
genealogy, homosexuality, perception and reality, chaos, dashed dreams.
MESSAGE - Looking at something changes it; the more you look at something,
the more uncertain you become.
(Note: People are seen smoking throughout the film; one character in particular has
a cigarette in his mouth in almost every scene.)
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