O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The Coen brothers haphazardly deconstruct Homer’s The Odyssey in Depression-era Mississippi as a cartoonish comedy with bluegrass music and egg yolk cotton fields. This shaggy story follows three chain gang escapees (George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson) looking for stolen money. Along the way they encounter near death, sexy seduction, get banned from Woolworth’s and record a hit song. The Coens (Fargo, Raising Arizona) are mischievous filmmakers, but the one-dimensional characters here make this ramble more of a guilty pleasure than a success.