Thanks for the memories!

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

A man (Williams) living in Alaska who is in serious debt issues tries to solve his money problems. His plan is to pass off a frozen corpse he has recently found as his long lost brother, in order to collect his large life insurance policy. It seemed like such a Simple Plan(1998), but two bubbling soon-to-be gangsters and an eager insurance adjuster have different things to say. This quirky low-key movie is definitely worth while, even just to catch Holly Hunter as Williams' Tourette's-afflicted wife. S

I have never written a review yet on IMDb, but i thought this movie deserved some praise, after watching the movie i went to IMDb and saw the rating and was quite disappointed, if it had the Cohen brothers name on it, it would have had at 7 rating at least.The cast did a great job in this movie, there is a lot of great and dark humor, all in all its probably one of the best movies i watched last year.The dialog and characters remind me a lot of a typical Cohen brothers writing/directing, I'm a big Cohen brothers fan, and this movie passed Fargo in my book, The Big White reminded me a lot of Fargo so i watched Fargo again a few days after watching The Big White and i was a bit disappointed, The Big White should be up there with the best when it comes to cult classics but sadly it didn't get the recognition it deserves in my opinion.

This is a black comedy. As a black; it's like the worst one ever. And as a comedy it is nasty, boring and unfunny.What kind of movie where you wish for its end all the time? A movie full of poor plot and obnoxious time. There are no real events after the return of the brother. Even that itself wasn't utilized well for anything. (Giovanni Ribisi)'s character lacked the motive. Why that guy was so obsessed to get the truth like this ? Is that because he sucks in his love life ?! So the movie's moral is be sloppy at work to be great at home?! What is this ?! I didn't understand the sickness of the lead's wife ? Or how Hawaii would cure her? The dialog between (Holly Hunter) and her kidnapper, in the kitchen, concerning lying about being sick seemed philosophical in totally the wrong place, I don't know what's the need for it in the first place ? And really; why the songs with the photomontage while the useless shots for the movie's characters getting into their cars ?? That said nil and added more bore.If I ever read on this movie's cover that it's a "Comedy", then I must screeeeeem. That could be the lousiest scheme ever !! Nothing was comic about it. Not the torn corpse in the video. Not the human flesh in the refrigerator. Not breaking a dead guy's leg. Not the bloody scratches and bruises on the leads' faces. Not the hostage situation. Not a performance. Not a scene. And not even a line !I didn't figure out any meaning out of this movie's dark world. That because there isn't any. It's only about how far a lover can go for his love, however made by one dull way! As you see, it isn't a black comedy, rather a black hole. Nevertheless, it's not all empty. It has its free nastiness !(Giovanni Ribisi) can sum up this movie well. First off, he can't be an equal to Robin Williams as a co-lead. So forget about antagonism, hot conflict, whatever. Then he's incredibly silly, and I'm not talking about his character at all. And he looked deformed for no reason, now I'm talking about his character. I don't know why he was beaten to this extent to look the awful way he did? That was not slightly comic or meaningful or anything !I'm sad for (Williams)'s choices. Look at his career in that phase since the end of the 1990s : Bicentennial Man (1999), One Hour Photo (2002), Death to Smoochy (2002), The Final Cut (2004), The Big White (2005), The Night Listener (2006), RV (2006), Man of the Year (2006). They were all financial flops or about to be. Thank god that he made Insomnia (2002), Robots (2005), Night at the Museum (2006), Happy Feet (2006) in between. It's clear that for every good movie he makes 2 doomed ones. While starring some of these movies is justified, having good elements to share in them, I don't know why he, or anybody, would do something like this big nothing, sorry, this big white ?! Good things? Ahhh, it's my curse to be objective in a movie like this. Well, they would be 1) a line that says "love is sacrifice". Yes, I know it's tacky and doesn't originally belong to this movie, but I must find something good ! 2) Holly Hunter running around cutely. 3) Marilyn Monroe dancing steamily, urrrr, No, that was my imagination trying to lessen the movie's burden during the viewing !Finally, at one of the movie's nastiest moments (Woody Harrelson) hits (Giovanni Ribisi) in the groin, for nothing at all, or maybe because the last bugged him. So, according to this dealing itself, I want to hit this movie's groin. It bugged me very !

The obvious other movie that comes to mind when watching 'The Big White' is the Coen Brothers's 'Fargo' (you know, the kidnapping/ransom of the spouse, the money, Winnipeg etc). However, it's the comedy that makes the difference. In 'Fargo' the humour is more subtle and disguised as drama while in 'The Big White' the dialogues and situations are more obviously funny and that's what gives it its own charm. Another difference is that 'Fargo' is a black comedy while this one is more of a dark comedy that's not exactly black. Mark Mylod directs a splendid ensemble cast and tells the story at an initially slow but eventually steady pace. The actors are great. Robin Williams as the down-on-his-luck travel agent trying to make some quick bucks is wonderful. Holly Hunter is hilarious as the wife suffering from fake Tourettes syndrome (more likely a form of Munchausen's syndrome). She brilliantly balances humour and pathos. Both she and Williams share a good chemistry as do Giovanni Ribisi and Allison Lohman. Ribisi naturally fits the part while Lohman has a small role but makes the best of what she has and shines. Tim Blake Nelson and Earl Brown are quite funny too and Woody Harrelson, though initially loud, manages to give a more controlled performance in the latter reel. It's a dark comedy, so the humour is obviously dark but this is a fun film and I really liked it. The songs are very nice too especially 'I Want To Protect You' by Mark Everett. The cinematography is marvelous in the beginning but slowly settles for OK as the story moves towards the end. It's a pity that the film didn't even get a proper theatrical release and remains underrated and unseen by many. I'm glad I caught it and it's definitely worth watching for those who like dark comedy. What's not to like? There's violence, romance, suspense, humour and it's a clever story.