Stars:
*** 1/2
Rating: R for pervasive
language, sexual content and violence
Run
Time: 1
hour, 31 minutes
Those crazy
Coen Brothers (“No Country for Old Men”) veer a hard left with a humorous and
cautionary tale of lust and revenge.
Kicking
off this comic thriller is a pastiche of prickly players fully invested in
their self-absorbed worlds. Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is a CIA analyst fired
for a “drinking problem” at which point he comes totally unglued. His bitchy
physician wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) feels no pain (and little sympathy) as
she’s banging conflicted U.S. Federal Marshal Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) on
the side.
Stage
right is Hardbodies Gym, where office manager Linda Litzke (Coen regular
Frances McDormand) is fretting over her insurance company’s unwillingness to
cough up the dough for elective cosmetic surgery. Hyperactive trainer Chad
Feldheimer (a comically-timed Brad Pitt) is her classic shoulder to cry on, far
more brawn than brain.
Opportunity
knocks when a Hardbodies employee finds a CD of Osborne’s scathing tell-all
memoirs on the gym’s floor. Believing they’ve struck gold Chad and Linda
attempt to blackmail him; offering to trade the CD for $50K and blissful dreams
of lifts and liposuctions.
It
all goes to hell in a hand-basket when Harry, a serial online dater, hooks up with
Linda and six degrees of separation gets far too close for comfort.
As
per usual the Coens know dark comedy inside and out, turning good people and
questionable deeds into a rhythm-less circle jerk of swelling suspicion and
tantalizing twists of fate.
Richard
Jenkins is an understated delight as a Hardbodies manager with a secret yen for
Linda who will do just about anything to win her favor. Malkovich is dissonant
and intense, perfectly suited to a scorned CIA spook. Film has the smarts to
put a wrap on its genre-spoofing narrative before it starts leaking virtue –
whew.