No-one loves a loser more than the Coens do

Rating: 9/10 (12 October 2008)

So far I have not seen any comments from the UK so hopefully I will be among the first. (Thanks to a free preview screening.)
This is one of the funniest films I have seen for a long time.
I can not understand how, in some of the comments, people could find it unfunny, slow (what???), or pointless. Or why they are offended by a few f-words. All a matter of personal taste I suppose.
The film is similar(-ish) to Fargo in that it depicts people who are in over their heads (and in this case EVERYONE is in WAY over their heads), except the tone is not as dark and it is all mostly played for laughs.
Brad Pitt is an absolute joy as Chad. Why oh why has he not done more comedy before? George Clooney is great and Frances McDormand is a delight. John Malkovich is, well, just scary.
The film is a cleverly-constructed farce. But there is more to it than that. Recent news stories about missing government information on mislaid disks give it a measure of (maybe accidental) topicality. Besides that, this is a film for our times, depicting paranoia, dishonesty, stupidity, and a sense that no-one from the lowest worker to government high-ups has a grasp of what the real truth is behind any event.