No Country for Old Women

Rating: 5/10 (25 June 2010)

After he is threatened with expulsion, due to a drinking problem noted by a Mormon co-worker, fit-at-fifty John Malkovich (as Osborne Cox) quits the CIA. Undaunted and sober, Mr. Malkovich decides to author his memoirs. Wife Tilda Swinton (as Katie) worries about the couple's income, ponders a divorce, and rocks the boat with horny George Clooney (as Harry Pfarrer). Also suffering marital woes, Mr. Clooney plugs both Ms. Swinton and sagging beauty Frances McDormand (as Linda Litzke), a computer date. Ms. McDormand works at a "Hardbodies" fitness center with platonic gum-chewing Brad Pitt (as Chad Feldheimer).
Mr. Pitt finds Malkovich's dictated-to-CD memoirs - then, he and McDormand try to sell the disgruntled CIA agent's "secrets" to the Russians. Kept waiting at the Russian embassy, McDormand exclaims, "I am a US citizen and I will not take this kind of treatment!"
In short, this star-studded Coen brothers comedy has some strain showing. McDormand is most appealing.
***** Burn After Reading (8/27/08) Joel & Ethan Coen ~ Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich