Film: The Big Lebowski

Cast includes: Jeff Bridges (The Fisher King), John Goodman (The Flintsones), Julianne Moore (The End of the Affair)
Writers/directors: The Coen Brothers (Fargo)
Genre: Comedy (1998)

In brief: Meet Jeff Lebowski, aka The Dude, aka Dude. The Dude skims over life in a semi-conscious state, thanks to alternating doses of White Russians, grass and the residual effects of other assorted hallucinogens. On the day we meet The Dude, he is accosted in his home by some very nasty characters attempting to retrieve money owed to them by Lebowski’s trophy wife. But look around… does Dude look like a guy who’d have buckets of money stashed away? Or does he look like someone who’d have a trophy wife? Oops! Wrong Lebowski! But before the nasty characters figure this out, one nasty character pees on The Dude’s rug. This angers The Dude even more than the attempting drowning in the toilet bowl. After all, “the rug ties the room together.”

When Dude reports all this to his bowling buddies, Walter is infuriated. Walter, by the way, is Dude’s sidekick, who suffers from totally, out-of-control grandiosity. Walter thinks the issue is crystal clear… Dude was the victim of mistaken identity, and the real Lebowski needs to make restitution for the ruined rug. When The Dude meets with the real Lebowski, aka The Big Lebowski, nothing goes as planned. But Dude is relatively satisfied with the outcome and thinks the matter is resolved. Not so simple. When The Trophy Wife is kidnapped with a ransom demand, The Big asks The Dude to help by making the million-dollar drop… for a promised reward of $20K. Piece of cake! Or is it?

No one could be less capable of dealing with high-stakes crime than The Dude. And with the help of Walter, things get so convoluted that even Sam Spade wouldn’t be able to unscramble things. Add to that the fact that Dude continues to have wacky hallucinations, which we see through Dude’s eyes… things can get pretty weird. In The Big Lebowski, the Coen brothers test the limits of their offbeat humor. With a wonderful cast, this one has many memorable moments.

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