The film is a collection of works by the Coen brothers. The theme is the old theme. In an uncertain world, people who seek certainty are so ridiculous.
The male protagonist is a barber who doesn't like to talk, but he doesn't think so, he thinks he is more than that. It even took action to invest in a dry cleaner at the expense of extortion. So is he still a barber?
The male protagonist is not financially distressed. He has a car and a house. It can be seen that he is not desperate to invest because of economic distress. It can be seen that it is for the concept of dry cleaning, the cleaning of chemical reactions, so fresh and full of uncertainty, with him every day The unchanging life of donkey pulling mill is completely different. When the male protagonist was thinking of his own business or extortion plan, he asked his brother-in-law why his hair kept growing all the time? This shows that he began to transform into a thinker or observer, seeing hair grow and then cutting it, a metaphor for the observer changing and affecting the observed object. It was as if he just listened to the high school girl's piano music quietly at first, but then he lost control.
In the whole movie, the male protagonist hardly has any emotional fluctuations, and he admits that he speaks very little. This includes enduring endless nagging from his wife and brother every day, finding out that his wife is cheating, killing his wife’s boss after blackmailing him, trying to lure him absurdly by a con artist’s partner, and defrauding the money and arguing that the store must be named after the con artist’s family name, to Later, it was discovered that the liar was a liar, and the male protagonist has always maintained a calm that surpasses ordinary people. The only emotion in the film is when the male protagonist persuades the little girl in high school to find a famous piano teacher, and he is willing to help her arrange all this. Afterwards, when the little girl offered to serve him, he panicked and got into a car accident. So is he still a calm, taciturn person? The cold-hearted male protagonist shows his enthusiasm beyond ordinary people for the opportunities of pursuing uncertainty in life.
In stark contrast to the male protagonist is his brother-in-law. He took over his father's shop and accepted this seemingly certain arrangement. He was also willing to eat pie to the point of being disgusting for his family's game. To save his sister, he mortgaged a haircut. Shop to collect attorney fees. When all the hard work finally paid for his sister's suicide, he completely collapsed. The desire for certainty, finally, when uncertainty comes, crushes the man.
The wife likes the material pleasures of dressing up and perfume, and wants to be a financial executive. For this reason, she is willing to cheat, send her husband to help her shave or zip her zipper, and ruthlessly drive away the salesperson. She's the kind of purposeful, controlling, hard-working person who fits very well with traditional American values. After being arrested, he collapsed for no apparent reason and committed suicide. It can be said that they have the same goal with their younger brother.
The most interesting setting of the film is everyone's view of the truth after the male protagonist kills the boss. The police believe that the wife did it because of financial problems; the lawyer felt that the story would not work after listening to the male protagonist's confession; the boss's wife firmly believed that aliens kidnapped the boss and finally did it. The lawyer then speaks of Heisenberg's theory of observer-induced uncertainty, revealing what the director wants to talk about. Truth represents the quest for certainty, which is meaningless.
In the end, when the male protagonist found his passion in life, he was sentenced to death because of very absurd evidence, and he ushered in a certain death. No one can escape the arrangements of these uncertain forces. The male protagonist finally said, do these powers come from outside the earth? Maybe after death. Therefore, the ending of the male protagonist and his wife and brother-in-law is not much different.
It is worth mentioning the recurring UFO alien element. At the end of the film, the male protagonist dreams of a UFO observing him from a distance.
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