Dark and funny

Rating: 8/10 (21 October 2014)

A perfectly balanced blending of dark and funny, it's not just another Coen Brothers movie - it's their NORTH BY NORTHWEST. Like the Hitchcock classic, it boasts a brilliantly confected screenplay built around a plot mechanism - a McGuffin, as Hitch called such things - less substantial than air, involving government spies, secrets, duplicity and connivance. The Coens, as inventive as ever, add plastic surgery and keep-fit to the mix.
Superbly performed by a top-notch cast (has Brad Pitt ever given a more delightful performance? I really don't think so) and particularly noteworthy for its witty editing (courtesy of the Brothers themselves, under the name of Roderick Jaynes), it is crammed full, like all vintage Coen-work, of characters whose own worst enemies are themselves.
Some clearly find this sort of thing heartless, some find it far-fetched. I find it well-observed and sadly true-to-life.