100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #63: Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Written and directed by the Coen Brothers. Starring Oscar Isaac.
The Coen Brothers’ 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis is a folk song visualized as a melancholic film. However, despite the film's melancholic tone, there are moments of hope and perseverance, reflecting the Catholic belief in the ultimate triumph of good over evil and the promise of redemption for those who persevere in faith. Llewyn's journey is an invitation to conversion and spiritual growth. The depressing visuals and storyline of the characters disguise an uplifting message about journeys, growth, and people. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) himself is not exactly your virtuous hero. Llewyn is a struggling singer in Greenwich Village, New York, during the folk revival of the 1960s. His music partner, Mike, recently died and since then he has refused to join duos since, trying to make it on a solo act. He passes from couch to couch, never having a solid place to rest between gigs, simply “existing.” He cares little for the people around him and what they want, yet they all care for him. Despite numerous opportunities for growth and change, Llewyn often finds himself resisting, mirroring the human struggle with sin and the reluctance to embrace transformation, instead sticking with the comfort of sadness. In a conversation with his on-again, off-again lover Jean (Carey Mulligan), she quickly rebukes him and says the most honest thing to him, “You don’t want to get anywhere…and that’s why all the same s*** is gonna keep happening to you. Because you want it to.”
When he goes to Chicago to play for a man (F. Murray Abraham) who he believes could make him big, and in turn make everything better, he performs The Death of Queen Jane, a song taken from a ballad about King Henry VIII’s third wife dying in childbirth. Llewyn finishes the song almost in tears at the weight of both the lyrics and the moment, only to be met with the words “I don’t see a lot of money here” and the offer for growth in the form of joining a trio. At this invitation, Llewyn quickly denies the opportunity and leaves, stuck in his stubborn attempt to show respect to his dead partner. As he is driving back to New York defeated, Llewyn passes a sign for Akron, the city where a former lover and their child live. He sees the lights of the city and his breath hitches as he realizes what he could have if he goes there: a family to love and be loved by. Yet, as he approaches the exit, he keeps driving along the same route, going back to where he began, and his face falls flat and numb. This decision is the last real choice for change Llewyn is presented with, and he refuses it.
Throughout the story, Llewyn is in the company of an elusive orange cat : originally belonging to his friends, the pet escapes the apartment to journey with Llewyn, acting as a mystic companion of sorts. As much as Llewyn tries to rid himself of the cat, he finds it is the one thing he truly cares about outside of himself. He constantly worries about finding it, and carries it with him to Chicago. However, on the way there, he abandons the cat in the car he leaves behind to make it all the way to Chicago, and on the way back to New York, he hits a cat and watches it limp back into the woods. This cat, who we find is named “Ulysses”, represents the Odyssean type1 of Llewyn himself, or at least the better part of him.
Llewyn's journey, marked by setbacks and disappointments, underscores the Christian virtue of hope—the confident expectation of God's promises and the belief in the possibility of redemption and renewal. In the midst of struggle, characters demonstrate resilience and perseverance, drawing on the Catholic understanding of suffering as a path towards spiritual growth and deeper union with Christ. His character serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of recognizing one's need for grace and the transformative power of repentance in the Catholic understanding of conversion. The film's resolution, though ambiguous, offers glimpses of hope and the potential for new beginnings, reflecting the Christian belief in the ultimate triumph of light over darkness and the promise of eternal life in Christ.
Editor’s note: These Odyssean themes are a recurring motif in a lot of the Coen Brothers’ films, namely their 2000 satire O Brother, Where Art Thou, which is more overtly based on Homer’s epic tale
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