Coen bros multi-star vehicle hit

Rating: 8/10 (18 November 2008)

At first I thought this was another George Clooney/Brad Pitt 'Oceans' style collaboration. Interesting but ultimately daft. I was right. It is also more than that.
This is one of those films where it would be nice not to worry too much about the plot. However, the plot is so convoluted and daft that it is almost too much to ignore it. Here goes: Frances McDormand's character Linda wants a lot of surgery and can't get it through her medical insurance. She has convinced herself that, without it, life is boring.Until she gets the surgery, she will carry on dating a variety of rather pointless men. Enter Oz Cox. Oz Cox is a frustrated CIA/G man who is about to lose his job. His bosses claim he has a drink problem and his only defence is to blame his Mormon colleague (who is sober). He eventually quits his job and decides to write his rather dull memoirs. Now here is where it gets complex. Oz Cox's wife played by Tilda Swinton is having an affair with George Clooney's character Harry Pfarrar. Harry Pfarrar is serial dating a couple of women besides being married. One day, Oz Cox's legal secretary leaves a CD of his memoirs in the gym where Frances McDormand's character works along with her somewhat dim colleague played by Brad Pitt. It is Pitt who discovers the CD and realises or rather thinks, it might be valuable. Linda (Frances McDormand) decides to get onboard, turning into the brains of the operation. The pair of them decide to blackmail Oz Cox for a lot of money, enough to pay for Linda's surgery etc.
Unfortunately, the pair bank on the disk's importance. The CD, it turns out, contains nothing particularly interesting to the Russians, who they take it to. The Russians inform the CIA/FBI etc (Oz's bosses). They appear to be confused over the whole mess. With me so far!
So Linda decides to internet date Harry (George) who is involved with Oz's wife. In the meantime, Tilda Swinton playing Oz's wife decides to leave Oz and locks him out of their house. For some peculiar reason, Brad Pitt's character has to pay a visit to the house but only runs into Harry and ends up accidentally shot.
There are a lot of sub-plots in this movie. There is Harry Pfarrar who seems to be a sub-plot all by himself, played admirably by George Clooney who is a study in rather nicely dressed paranoia. On top of that, is the thing he is designing, which is a kind of 'love chair' which he shows to Frances McDormand's character. The Coen bros have a couple of lovely moments in the film where George thinks he is being followed by the Government which is a very nice nod/salute to George Clooney's politically motivated films and interests. Brad Pitt also acquits himself well as the nutty gym instructor with strange hair. But for my money, it is John Malkovitch as Oz Cox who really shines or rather tries to, with a character who should have been better written. Some of Malkovitch's lines are horrible, acres of the f-word. This is disappointing. Malkovitch is a truly brilliant actor, completely in his own league and very intelligent. Why couldn't the Coens give him better material to say? The same with Tilda Swinton. Again, brilliant, intelligent actress who has nothing good to say at all, her character being reduced to that of a red-haired sarcastic harridan. Again, please do better next time.