20. “The Ladykillers” (2004)
![THE LADYKILLERS, Tom Hanks, 2004, (c) Touchstone/courtesy Everett Collection](https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/MCDLADY_EC024.jpg?w=300)
The only real failure in the Coen Brothers’ career is this shrill 2004 black comedy, a remake of an acclaimed 1955 British film of the same name that had starred Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness. The 2004 “Ladykillers” casts America’s dad Tom Hanks drastically against type as Professor G.H. Dorr, a maniacal criminal who poses as a courtly Southern professor to rent extra rooms from the kind, elderly Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall). When Marve discovers his plot to rob a local casino, Dorr and his band of criminals (played by the likes of Marlon Wayans, J. K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, and Ryan Hurst) plot to murder her — only to fail thanks to some slapstick antics. It sounds like a recipe for a good time, but “The Ladykillers” just never takes off — the screenplay feels too broad and nonspecific to delight, and the comedy and suspense never cohere or gel convincingly. The result is an utter dud where the specificity of the Brothers’ voices gets diluted to nothingness, and their weaknesses are amplified to unpleasant ends. —WC