If I dim the lights a little more I'm sure Angelina will fancy me

Think you've got troubles? They're nothing compared to Ed Crane and his aren't going to get any better.

Nigel Bell

Last year the Coen brothers delivered one of the best movies of the year with the brilliantly filmed, acted, comic O Brother Where Art Thou?

This year they've delivered on of the best films of 2001 with the brilliantly filmed, acted but deeply dark The Man Who Wasn't There.

Not so much a homage, but it does borrow greatly from those film noir movies of the 40s.

It's stunningly shot in black and white (it's set in 1949). The cinematography is superb - stark scenes showing the emptiness and loneliness of man in, of all places, a barbers shop.

This film starts on a downer and never gets any higher. For all that, if you can stand the fact that there's no light at the end of the tunnel, it's a (very) slow burning masterpiece.

You played it for her, you can play it for me

Billy Bob Thornton (Mr Angelina "Tomb Raider" Jolie) plays Ed Crane, a hairdresser who's long lost the lust for life.

In the monochrome footage Billy Bob looks more like Boris Karloff. He smokes like a chimney, as do most of the other cast member, so if you've picked now as the time to give up the weed you'd better steer clear of this.

Crane discovers his wife is having an affair with her boss. He decides to blackmail him to earn the $10,000 needed to invest in the new fangled Dry Cleaning business.

Do you take this...oh, sorry, you're in court

At this point, Crane's life begins to go off the rails. His wife's lover is murdered and Mrs Crane (McDormund) is charged even though she's innocent.

It's downhill from here; you won't believe how far a man can fall from a boring 9 - 5 existence.

In between all the gloom the Coen's make sure their trademark sequences remain intact. There's a bizarre scene where a man rides a giant pig called Garibaldi.

Towards the end comes the classic Coen imagery - hubcaps representing flying saucers.

There are more red herrings than you'd find in a fish pie and the characters are memorable. Crane says more in his pauses than he could with a dozen words while Ann Nirdlinger (Katherine Borowitz) looks like the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz as she talks of UFO conspiracies.

This is a movie treat as opposed to an uplifting Hollywood film like this week's other new release Legally Blonde. Both deserve to be seen by a wide audience.