The Coen brothers love failures. They love characters who
just hopelessly fail at what they do. Any great literary character has to have
some flaw. Flaws make us human. The Greeks understood that. The most memorable
Coen Brothers protagonists are defined by flaws and made human by the
occasional glimmer of having it together. Mostly their heroes are lucky to get
out alive. Their latest creation, Llewyn Davis, embodies elements we’ve seen
before in their films. He’s going through a Job-like test a la Larry Gopnik. He’s
Tom Regan without the wits and strokes of luck. He’s Jeff Lebowski without a
bed of his own. He’s Everett McGill without a plan. He’s Barton Fink without
the success. He’s all of this, but still entirely original.
