BLOOD SIMPLE
A film review by Chad Polenz
Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz
*1/2 1985, R, 96 minutes [1 hour, 36 minutes] [drama/crime] starring: John Getz (Ray), Frances McDormand (Abby), Dan Hedaya (Marty), M. Emment Walsh (P.I.), produced by Ethan Coen, written by Ethan and Joel Coen, directed by Joel Coen.
"Blood Simple" acts like some kind of genius, psychological thriller, but all I saw was one of those B movies they show on UHF stations at 3 a.m. It is a fair attempt at making a good, macabre, crime story, but not much works here.
The story revolves around some hick town in Texas where a young woman, Abby (McDormand), is cheating on her husband Marty (Hedaya) with Ray, one of the bartenders (Getz as Ray) at Marty's strip club. We don't learn much about the affair except that Marty must be the typical, insanely jealous type.
They sleep at the Ray's house, and then somewhere else, but nothing happens to create for a plot. The story lingers on events that are of absolutely no importance to the rest of the of story as a whole. There is some dialogue pushing the story along, but it isn't very interesting because they're not talking about anything relevant.
Marty meets a generic P.I. (Walsh) who seems too bubbly and happy compared to Marty's nearly psychotic attitude. The two characters clash like polkadots and plaid. This isn't anything moody or intense, it's just plain dumb and boring. Marty wants the P.I. to kill Abby and Ray, and so the P.I. stalks the two, and forms an insane obsession with them.
Meanwhile, Abby and Ray get their own apartment in order to stop Marty from harassing them, but suddenly the story becomes even more bizarre when the P.I. kills Marty. From here on the events are just too strange to comprehend. It's not artistically surrealistic, it's just typical B movie trash disguised as an intricate crime story.
The characters all seem to be going crazy and there's no explanation for this insanity. The film essentially becomes a horror flick by the end with three dead bodies and no reasoning.
"Blood Simple" definitely has a tremendous amount of potential, but its organization and execution are too bizarre for its own good.
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