Microcinema Flashback - THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE... An Example That Anything Can Happen! (2003)

Two years earlier I had written an article about how to overcome writers block by focusing on the phrase Anything Can Happen. In November 2003 I share a Coen Bros. story that shows just that.

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THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE... An Example That Anything Can Happen!
By Pete Bauer

I spent last night watching the Coen Brother's film THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE and was surprised at the amount of plot twists that happened in what appears to be a realitively innocuous storyline. It empitomized my belief, in screenwriting, that anything can happen. The film takes place in 1949 and stars Billy Bob Thorton as Ed Crane, a second-chair barber working for his brother-in-law at a three-chaired barber shop. Crane's wife Doris, played by Coen regular Frances McDormand, works as a bookkeeper in a local department store. The store is managed by Big Dave, played by Soprano James Gandolfini, who got the job as a manager by marrying Ann, who's family owns the department store chain.

Crane's professional and personal life are stagnate. He doesn't speak much and doesn't like to be spoken to either. One night, during dinner with Big Dave and Ann, he comes to the conclusion the Big Dave and his wife, Doris, are having an affair. Big Dave is excited that he's about to open his own new store in the department store chain and that Doris would be promoted to Comptroller. Even though Crane believes his wife is unfaithful with Big Dave, he is uninspired to confront it. However, the next morning a stranger, named Tolliver, comes into the barber shop venting his frustration on failing to acquire venture capital to start a new thing called Dry Cleaning. He's already approached and been dismissed by Big Dave and he's ready to leave town. Crane, realizing he's never pursued any of his own dreams, tells Tolliver that he'd be able to provide the $10,000 investment by the end of the week.

Crane then drafts a ransom note to Big Dave stating he knows he's having an affair with a married woman (he does not name Doris by name) and he's demanding $10,000. At a department store party, Big Dave confides in Crane that he's been having an affair with a married woman (not necessarily Doris) and that if the news gets out, he'll lose his job and his dream of owning his own department store. Big Dave believes Tolliver is behind it and the only way to get the money would be to ask Doris to cook the books (embezzle) the get the cash.


Big Dave has Doris embezzle and he deposits the money as the ransom note has stated. Crane picks up the money and gives it to Tolliver, signing contracts for the partnership in the Dry Cleaning business. A few evenings later, after a family wedding that left Doris passed out from drinking, Crane gets a call from Big Dave to meet him at the store. Crane uses Doris' keys and her car and meets Big Dave in his office. He discovers that Big Dave had beaten Tolliver and found out Crane was behind the ransom note. Big Dave then tries to choke Crane, but Crane slashes his throat with Big Dave's lucky knife, who drops to the floor and dies in a pool of his own blood. Not knowing what to do, Crane goes home.

The next day police arrive at the barbershop. Crane, expecting as much, all but confesses before they interrupt him to tell him his wife had been picked up for the murder. Apparently, they theorize, she killed Big Dave to cover up the embezzlement activity, for which they believe she was solely responsible. This is where the story really takes off creatively.

- Crane's brother-in-law and fellow barber gets a loan against the barber shop to pay for the best attorney, played brilliantly by Tony Shalhoub.
- Ann, Big Dave's wife, stops by on the way home from Big Dave's funeral to tell Crane that, while camping a few years ago, Big Dave and Ann were abducted by aliens and that Big Dave had not been the same since.
- In a meeting at the prison with Shaloub, Doris and Crane, Crane confesses to the crime, but it's dismissed by Shalhoub as a ineffective defense ploy.
- On lonely nights Crane finds comfort at his friend's house, listening to the piano playing of his friends teen daughter.
- Tolliver has disappeared. Crane surmises he left with the money and his dreams and his reality are now hoplessly lost.
- Shalhoub hires a private eye who discovers all of Big Dave's WWII claims were false and they would use the potential revelation of that info as the motive, replacing the embezzlement motive.

Ann speaks of UFOs

- As they are about to begin the trial, Doris commits suicide by hanging herself herself.
- The brother-in-law is so distraught he no longer works, so Crane handles the barbershop to keep it out of foreclosure.
- The Medical Examiner tells Crane, in confidence, that Doris was pregnant. Crane tells him that they hadn't made love in years, which means she was having the affair.
- Crane, intent on doing something important, pays for his friends daughter to play piano for a master teacher, in the hopes that she would go on to become a great pianist.
- The teacher states the student has talent, but no heart for music.
- On the drive back the teen girl makes passes at Crane and attempts to give him a blow job, causing an accident.
- Crane awakens to find the police in his room, arresting him for the beating death of Tolliver, who was found at the bottom of a river. The contracts with his name and the money are found and are used as motive.
- Crane gets a loan on his house to pay Shalhoub for defense, but an unexpected tirade by Crane's brother-in-law's during the trial causes a mistrial.
- Unable to pay for a good attorney, the state appointed one convinces Crane to plead guilty and hope for the best.
- He is sentenced to die in the electric chair.
- He dreams of a UFO visiting him at the jail.
- He is walked down and executed.

The amazing thing about this screenplay is that every fifteen minutes or so something outrageously new is interjected. As is typical with a Coen Brothers film, these unexpected and intriguing turns spin a world that seems familiar to most of us into something oddly unique. They take the classic film noir and turn it into their own brand of black and white reality.

The script and the path the storyline travels is a prime example that anything can happen.