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Created Dec 21, 2008 05:37PM PST • Edited Jul 09, 2017 07:33PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   OK 2.5

   This modern farce picks up a decent head-of-steam, but rarely becomes LOL funny, and ultimately suffers from its makers’ oddball sense of timing and irony. Bottom line: a lesser Coen Brothers comedy, worth watching but not treasuring.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   Pretty boys Clooney and Pitt are plenty funny playing doofuses, kind of like male Marilyn Monroes. Each is shortchanged however: Brad – the best thing about the movie – by not being on screen more or longer; Clooney by being forced to share several scenes with Tilda Swinton, who doesn’t have a comedic bone in her body. Why does this woman get so many plum parts? She’s a bummer.

   Patented performances by Frances McDormand and John Malkovich are comedic highlights. Mrs. Joel Coen has long since perfected humorous self-assurance, though her performance here isn’t especially memorable. Malkovich, the king of high dudgeon, screams entertainingly at the idiocy around him. As Will aptly puts it, “Malkovich just needs to shout at least once and I’m won over!” So right.

   Amongst the other significant players, JK Simmons acquits himself well as an absurd CIA honcho, but Richard Jenkins fades into the scenery as Frances McDormand’s love-sick boss.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Barely OK 2.0

8. Male Costars OK 2.5

10. Film

    OK 2.5

    The Coen Brothers adroit use of Clooney and Pitt in silly roles is the sort of stereotype puncturing move we expect of these high profile absurdists. If only they were able to maintain the fever pitch that farces require to be consistently funny. Plus, as with No Country for Old Men, they insist on dropping in premature and unexpected climaxes, here damaging the comedic momentum the movie manages to generate.

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play OK 2.5

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals OK 2.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

19. Rudeness Salty 2.1

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    The plot makes casual use of the sort of craven espionage that proved so devastating in real life, as shown in Breach. We have to guess this is some sort of statement by the Brothers Coen: In their absurd America, people are happy to sell out their country to the Russians for the price of a boob job.

    The movie also asks us to accept that the CIA routinely disposes of bodies in broad daylight. Sure the CIA is an all purpose punching bag for current Hollywood filmmakers, but this stretches the bounds of credulity.

22. Circumstantial Glib 2.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0