Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

At the beginning of the film, Google Earth takes us into the CIA headquarters where analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is being given his marching orders. He returns home and begins work on his memoirs while his wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) is off having an affair with Harry (George Clooney), a married Federal Marshal. Meanwhile, at Hardbodies Fitness Centre, Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) tells fellow employee Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) about her plans for cosmetic surgery and Internet dating. When a computer disk containing Osbourne’s memoirs accidentally falls into the hands of Linda and Chad, the duo are intent on exploiting their find … and everybody’s world begins to implode as events spiral darkly and hilariously out of control.

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All the characters are middle-aged, and all are undergoing some sort of professional or personal crises. Paranoia rules as they take turns being ‘the idiot of the day’. As can be expected in any Coen brothers’ film, all the characters suffer dire consequences as a result of their collective stupidity. It’s difficult to nominate the biggest middle-aged loser amongst these characters, but it is certainly entertaining to see Clooney and Pitt put their hearts and souls into the competition. I think Pitt with his strangely bleached crew cut, chewing gum, plugged into his iPod and prancing around in Spandex shorts might take the prize.

The Coen brothers (No Country for Old Men, Fargo, The Big Lebowski) have outdone themselves. Amongst all the dark hilarity are very poignant social comments and some great lines. As Malkovich says, ‘Expect an entertaining and original view of the world, with a way of looking at things that isn’t straightforward.’

Lezly Herbert