Viewed in
2010
Formats
HD TV
Premise
A married couple decide to steal a baby from a rich family's quintuplets to make their own.
Liked
Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter, the off-beat comedy.
Disliked
The diverting subplots.
Thoughts
A movie that started off hilariously great, then could not sustain itself for the rest of the time.
Overall, it contained the typical Coen quirky dialogue and off-beat characters that we have come to love. Cage and Hunter were a funny couple, and for the current generation, they kind of reminded me of the TV show, My Name is Earl. There were some funny moments with John Goodman, such as the jail-break scene clearly an ode to child birth. One of my favorite scenes was the fight in the trailer, which it accurately portrayed the ineffectiveness of a fist-fight in tight spaces.
From a film buff perspective, this was a movie of humble beginnings for many. Not only for the Coens, but for future director Barry Sonnenfeld as cinematographer, composer Carter Burwell, and Coen regular Frances McDormand. Although I guess the same could be said about Blood Simple.
I think the reason why there were so many boring parts was because of the subplots involving a hellish bounty hunter and Cage's former-convict buddies. In the first twenty minutes, I was in love with Cage/Hunter characters, but all of a sudden, their storyline with the baby was distracted by these characters and goofy chases.
Also, it sometimes felt too slapsticky for the Coens. There was an early scene in which Cage's character snuck into the quintuplet's room, and it was just five minutes of him chasing around adorable babies. It just felt like it came from a different movie. This was one of many scenes that were individually creative but the sum was less than their parts combined.
It had a great premise with two charming leads. Too bad the rest of the movie felt like a pair of young promising filmmakers working out their mistakes.
What I would change
Replaced the bounty hunter and escaped convicts subplots with family-themed complications.
