If ever there was a writer who fully deserved the epithet "pretentious" then it's surely Barton Fink, the eponymous character in the Coen Brothers' classic foray into the surreal, nightmarish life of the mind.Made during a lull in the writing of Miller's Crossing, it's their most cryptic, intriguing and richly symbolic movie yet. Moving from New York to Hollywood, checking into a hotel and trading the theatre for the silver screen after being offered huge sums of money by a major studio, all Barton Fink (John Turturro) wants to do is continuing to write for the "common man" - unfortunately, all they want to watch are mindless wrestling movies. It isn't long before Fink's inability to write the material, matters which aren't improved by the arrival in the hotel of insurance salesman Charlie Meadows (Coen regular John Goodman). As much a film about the vicissitudes of writing as it is a critique of the nature of Hollywood and how inspiration can come from the most unexpected - often dark - places. It's Turturro's best performance to date, too - one of the most rounded, focused Coen characters brought to life with a David Lynch haircut and crumbling interior state oozing out through the hotel walls. It's also perhaps the finest example of the Coen brothers defying genre, a postmodern surreal horror merged effectively with film noir and a writer's long and arduous journey towards satisfaction.
