By Vanessa Chen
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
If only Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) was given a chance. Maybe if he was born into a different time, maybe if he had connections or maybe if he had pursued a different life for himself, then circumstances would have worked out for him. But we’ll never know because “Inside Llewyn Davis” is set during the folk music scene in 1961 New York, and everything Llewyn touches “turns to s***,” as succinctly pointed out by Jean (Carey Mulligan, who plays Llewyn’s best friend’s wife, whom he impregnates).
A permanently melancholy Llewyn, with his dark unkempt hair and an intransigent disposition to match, travels around New York looking for work. He’ll take any job as long as he does not have to compromise his art, which is folk music. His failures are not a matter of skill; he’s incredibly talented, only he is not willing to change his music (and by extension, himself) to fit with popular demands.
Seeing as this is a Coen brothers movie (Joel and Ethan direct, write, produce, and edit most of their films), it should be unsurprising to the film-goer that “Llewyn Davis” isn’t a success story; rather it’s an examination of a life unfulfilled—not because of the protagonist himself, but because the life he was born into wasn’t right for him.
And Llewyn isn’t perfect; he has the unfortunate habit of taking people for granted. Maybe it’s because of his uncompromising nature or maybe because it’s the way he was raised, but Llewyn is man that never shows gratitude. In a sense, he’s completely disconnected from the world. He never truly connects to anyone. The only person who seems to genuinely have an effect on Llewyn is his musical partner, Mike—only Mike is no longer alive. As a defense mechanism, Llewyn shields himself from anything that’s not in the immediate present. He only visits others if he sees an immediate benefit—whether it is for food, shelter, transportation, money or sex.
He also risks ruining his friendship with Jean and Jim (who are married) by sleeping with Jean behind Jim’s back. Jean, unlike Llewyn, cares about her future. In the doctor’s office, we learn that this is not the first time Llewyn has had to pay for another woman’s abortion. Through the course of the film, Llewyn dives deeper and deeper into a cesspool of unrelenting despair; he lives a life unrealized.
In a way, the film is structured like a folk song, which Llewyn tells us “is never new, and never gets old.” It has a musical narrative form. It’s cyclical, so by the end, we are exactly in the same place as we started (the opening scene is played twice), which is a testament to folk music’s lasting power through the years.
Just like the music, “Inside Llewyn Davis” is a movie that “is never new, and never gets old.”
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFphYRyH7wc
Now in theatres. DVD and Blu-Ray on March 11.
Written and directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen; director of photography, Bruno Delbonnel; edited by Roderick Jaynes; production design by Jess Gonchor; costumes by Mary Zophres; produced by Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen; released by CBS Films. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.
WITH: Oscar Isaac (Llewyn Davis), Carey Mulligan (Jean), John Goodman (Roland Turner), Garrett Hedlund (Johnny Five), F. Murray Abraham (Bud Grossman), Justin Timberlake (Jim), Robin Bartlett (Lillian Gorfein), Ethan Phillips (Mitch Gorfein), Stark Sands (Troy Nelson), Adam Driver (Al Cody) and Jeanine Serralles (Joy).
