(rated R)
If you thought “O Brother Where Art Thou?” referring to the Coen brother’s last-more-commercial-than-their-usual-offbeat-style-“Intolerable Cruelty,” rest assured, their “Fargo” and “Big Lebowski” tricks have returned. In this southern fried, gospel singing, Gothic style parable, Tom Hanks take a career risk by playing a fast talking con artist resembling Colonel Sanders and Mark Twain’s love child. He assembles a band of thieves headed by Marlan Wayans who plan to stash their casino robbery profits in the basement of a sweet l’il ole lady (Irma P. Hall). Hanks uses some smooth academic talking, philosophy boasting, Renaissance-man gibberish to appease her, but she just ain’t fallin’ for it. She’s onto ‘em. And so the tale kicks into (written and directed) Ethan and Joel Coen magic from the “Hallelujah’s” to that fateful Mississippi barge.
