The whole is much greater than the sum of its parts

Rating: 7/10 (9 November 2008)

Recap: Osborne Cox is demoted (or fired because he subsequently quits) from his job as an analyst at the CIA. That is the start of a chain of reactions outside anybody's control. It contains secrets, spies, betrayal, the promise of love and cold brutal divorce. With more time on his hands Osborne decide to write his memoirs. Memoirs that through unlikely events end up in the hands of two gym instructors, who thinks the material is secret CIA-material and decide that they are entitled to a big reward. When Cox refuses to pay they turn to the Russian Embassy and then things really get out of hand. And in the middle of it all the CIA wonders what the .... is going on?
Comments: A splendidly written movie with a lot of characters with just a little insight on the entire story. Unknown to each other and themselves, they are all connected to each other, some in multiple ways. And when everyone tries to get a grip on things, they just makes everything worse. And that's what is so fun! For all the right reasons, the make all the wrong moves.
Apart from the story, the Coen brothers have also managed to create some great characters, and cast them with the actors they had in mind when they wrote. The result is interesting characters with actors doing what they do best. Malkovich is splendid in a role written for him, Clooney wins the day with a smile and McDormand is great as the obsessing, plotting woman in trouble way over her head. Best of them all, my favorite is J.K. Simmons as the CIA Superior charged with making sense of this mess (not an easy task).
Everything gives 90 minutes of surprising twists and fun. But it is not hilarious all the time. It sure got its moments, but in between it seems to slow down, or rather to prepare and wind up for the nest of these moments. It's not dull, not close, but there are some stretches were you kind of forget the comedy part, some jokes that not really work. It is a very good movie that lacks a little something to make it great.
7/10