- Film Review
- Reviewed By Stella Papamichael
-
4 out of 5
This crime caper from the Coen brothers highlights their talent for blending sophistication and silliness. John Malkovich gets the chance to go totally over the top as Osborne Cox, an indignant, heavy-drinking CIA veteran who begins writing an unauthorised memoir after he's fired. When the computer disc containing his book is mislaid at a gym, fitness instructor Chad (Brad Pitt) and his frumpy colleague Linda (Frances McDormand) seek to profit with a half-baked blackmail scheme. This is the springboard for many madcap cloak-and-dagger antics, which also involve Cox's wife Katie (a hard-nosed Tilda Swinton) and her lover Harry, a federal marshal played by George Clooney. It's a brilliant performance from Clooney, who plays Harry as a vainglorious twit, echoing his previous turns in the Coens' O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty. The plot is overly complicated and rather ridiculous, but therein lies the fun. After all the philosophising over their Oscar-laden No Country for Old Men (2007), it's as though the Coens are now inviting us to lighten up.
Plot Summary
Black comedy crime drama starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt. A fitness trainer and his frumpy colleague hatch a blackmail plot when they come into possession of a computer disc containing the memoir of a disgruntled former CIA agent.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Harry Pfarrer
- George Clooney
- Linda Litzke
- Frances McDormand
- Chad Feldheimer
- Brad Pitt
- Osborne Cox
- John Malkovich
- Katie Cox
- Tilda Swinton
- Ted Treffon
- Richard Jenkins
- Sandy Pfarrer
- Elizabeth Marvel
- CIA officer
- David Rasche
- CIA superior
- J K Simmons
- Cosmetic surgeon
- Jeffrey DeMunn
Crew
- Director
- Ethan Coen
- Director
- Joel Coen
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