Gangsters are the subject of this quirky Coen brothers film starring Gabriel Byrne, John Turturro, Jon Polito, and Albert Finney. As is custom with the Coens' surreal dramatic thrillers, there's a thin humorous undercurrent beneath the madness (an exaggerated machine gun shootout inexplicably serves well as both a dramatic plot point and hilarity). But on the whole, this is one of the Coens' more serious films. Their trademarks -- cigar smoking fat men behind desks, long hallways, eerily dripping blood, ruthless monologues, pleading monologues, creepy plot twists, and an omnipresent sense of place and time -- are all here in their splendor, and they work together to form a remarkable story with a lot of dramatic impact.