SOURCE: "Hollywood's Holy Grail," in Commentary, Vol. 92, No. 5, November, 1991, pp. 50-53.

In the following excerpt, Grenier asserts that the ending of Barton Fink fails to live up to the promise of its beginning.

Barton Fink is not the story of a Jewish Galahad. Created by Joel and Ethan Coen, scripted by the two brothers working as a team, directed by Joel, produced by Ethan, Barton Fink is the first movie in the history of the Cannes Film Festival to win three top awards (best film, best director, best leading actor, John Turturro). With The Fisher King sharing the Silver Lion at Venice, it makes an impressive one-two for the new highbrow Hollywood.

Barton Fink was conceived while the Coen brothers were stricken with writer's block during the creation of Miller's Crossing, an ambitious and critically well-received evocation of the Chicago gangland of the 1920's. Like Miller's Crossing, Barton...