Rob Reviews "Honey Don't!"

I have a strange fandom when it comes to the Coen Brothers.  Their sensibilities can define the phrase “off the beaten path,” but even when they get WAY off that path, I still tend to enjoy their stuff.  (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a prime example; I am also one of those who didn’t dig O Brother, Where Art Thou?, so take that for you are paying for it.)  They have worked separately for a few years now, and Ethan’s latest in Honey Don’t! giving the vibe of a modern film noir had me ready to go to the theater.

Margaret Qualley plays Honey O’Donahue, a private detective who has a client die in a car accident that leaves questions.  As she looks more into the incident, she finds herself crossing paths with a number of her small town’s eccentric characters from a detective with a crush (Charlie Day) to an evidence clerk that catches her eye (Aubrey Plaza) to a local preacher that may not be completely on the up-and-up (Chris Evans).

If I had to give a one-word review to this film, it would be… incomplete.

With a run time that doesn’t clear an hour and a half (there is a REALLY cool title sequence at the beginning that gives me ‘70s vibes), there is PLENTY of room to flesh out a lot more of this story than is presented on the screen.  The performances are solid and it is shot well, but I genuinely feel like there is a director’s cut that really could have made it to theaters to make the story work. The Coens do specialize in working with a multitude of characters to make it all intertwine and stick the landing, but this film just seems to land with a thud.

Granted, when I spend a ton of time during a film trying to figure out where this was all going, that is a good thing.  The downside with this film is that when it gets there, it just seems to feel like its resolution was written because they forgot to write it and threw something out there to get it to the end credits.

I cannot say that Honey Don’t! is a bad film by any stretch, but I also cannot say this is one that needs to be put on a rush status to get to the theater.  Maybe it’s that I set the bar too high going in because I am a fan of the director and the genre, but I don’t think that is truly it.  I would be curious to see what is on the Blu-Ray release and hope there is another version of it that helps it all tie together better.