Miller's Crossing (Special Edition)

Comments about Miller's Crossing (Special Edition):

This has to be one of the Coen brother's best films. It showcases the full range of elements that consistently make their movies absolutely shine: great casting (there's a bunch of some of their favourite actors putting in an appearance, as well as a cameo by Sam Raimi and an unscripted turn by Francis McDormand, 'Mrs. Coen'), a flawless script, incredible attention to detail in set design, cinematography so good it brings a tear to the eye, and a complexity in the relationships of the characters that may require you to keep your wits about you to keep up with, but has the pay off of keeping you engrossed in the storyline.
The central character in this movie - a Prohibition era mob story - is Tom Regan (Gabriel Byrne). Tom works for boss Leo (Albert Finney), is seeing Leo's girl Verna (Marcia Gay Harden) on the side, is caught up with the trouble Verna's brother Bernie (John Turturro) is causing Leo via upsetting another up-and-coming boss Johnny Caspar, and owes money to bookie Lazarre and is fast running out of time to repay it. With that jumble as a starting point, the story follows Tom as he endeavours to deal with all the demands and tensions caused by these relationships and the issues that arise, without getting whacked in the process.
Typical of Coen brother's flicks, scenes with slower paced but fantastic character-driven dialogue are broken up by scenes of breathtaking violence, but to be fair, this would have been a pretty accurate picture of the time and the people portrayed; if you don't have violence in a Prohibition era mob story, something is missing and it can't be all that accurate. But if you can stomach the violence (which is never arbitrarily gratuitous, but rather serves the development of the story), it's an incredibly rich and satisfying experience to sit through.
One of my favourite movies ever.