Quite oddly for me, there seems to be a large gap in my memory of this film. I remember it, and I very much enjoyed it, but for some reason I can't remember all of what occurs in it. So bear this in mind cause I'm most likely not the best person to listen to in that case.
I thought it was a good film, a good old fashioned genre film without all the attempts to alter genre in some way. It just exploited the gangster genre faithfully. I know the word exploited doesn't make the film sound that great but it is actually meant in a god way. Most films today, regardless of thier content and context, will attempt to mix genres and it does work, and works well too. But when you see a proper genre film, with nothing to hide and nothing to change. well, it makes a nice change - I suppose it feels a little bit more like going back to when genre was all-important.
I think this is a great film, and the performances are good too. The Coen's regular John Turturro puts in an especially good performance in my opinion and if you are a fan of the Coen Brothers, then this film has to be required viewing.