This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 8:40 pm and is filed under B, Comedy, NEW IN THEATER. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Director: Ethan and Joel Coen
Starring: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, J.K. Simmons
The Coen brothers who do everything on their films but the catering, have snap fired from the hip with this light, quick comedy that is more about characters and performances than it is about story and dialog, but what a great group of characters played to the hilt by a crew of seasoned performers who were clearly had alot of fun making this movie. I still find Tilda Swinton to lack charisma to truly fit into the star role, while J.K. Simmons (best known as Juno’s dad and Peter Parker’s boss) impresses me every time I see him.
John Malkovich is a disgruntled CIA guy whose memoir notes end up in the hands of a goofy fitness worker and his sad, pathetic co-worker (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand), who come up with the world’s worst blackmail plan. This is backed up by George Clooney as a treasury department officer with more testosterone than brains. For a film that seems to be set up as a comedy, it turns a little slow and depressing in spots, and could have benefitted from some more zippy dialog. The end result is an uneven but entertaining look at fidelity and intelligence and a group of characters who lack both. The whole thing ends strongly and has one of the funniest final scenes in recent memory.
Don’t go to Burn After Reading and expect Fargo or No Country For Old men. This feature is closer to The Big Lebowski or O’ Brother Where Art Thou, though is distinctly different from their previous efforts. Not a bad film for fans of off-beat comedies, or the Coen brothers body of work.
