Step right up, ladies and gents, and check out what the Coen brothers have up their sleeve in The Man Who Wasn't There: Meditative Pacing! Ironic Detachment! Existential Dread! Yup, director Joel Coen and his producer, brother Ethan - this is the ninth film they've written together - deliver everything that audiences are running from in these perilous times. Bless them. Hell, filmgoers can't live by white bread alone. None of the cozy mush of Serendipity for the Coen boys.

Set in the sleepy…

A black-and-white film with a noir-like plot about a chain-smoking, unhappily married barber whose blackmail attempt is foiled by a series of ironic mishaps.

Story

Set in 1949 in the quiet California town of Santa Rosa, the story centers on Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton), who is a second-chair barber in his brother-in-law Frank's barbershop (Michael Badalucco). Ed's wife Doris (Frances McDormand) is having an affair with

her boss, hotshot department store owner Big Dave (James Gandolfini). When…