Much ado about nothing, and you'll find nothing that is so much fun to watch

Rating: Null/10 (14 November 2008)

I am easily pleased (too easily, alas)  after watching John Malkovich's performance in the first 3 minutes of the movie, I said to myself that I've already got the worth of my ticket. The rest is bonus. This Coen Brothers' latest movie is all about performance and there is such a wonderful ensemble of top performers effortlessly showcasing their brilliance. I'll come to that later.
The plot is no more and no less convoluted than what you would expect from the Coen Brothers and it hardly matters. But if you really want to know, it starts with an over-the-hill CIA agent Osbourne Cox (Malkovich) getting sidelined and quitting in an explosive temper tantrum. His wife Katie (Tilda Swinton), a dentist who gets little kids to open their mouths with threats that might have come from a torture-ready interrogator, is obviously not exactly excited about the news. But her mind is occupied with more important things, her affair with the couple's friend Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a married man and a treasury agent who goes nowhere without a gun which he claims, however, that has never been fired in all these 20 years he has been carrying it. Harry, obviously not content with just one wife and one mistress, meets through Internet blind date one Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) a health club employee who, on a quest to become a "new person", physically, is constantly after her medical insurance company to finance her 4 plastic surgeries scheduled. The plot thickens with Litzke and co-worker Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) stumble across a disk which contains a draft of Cox's memoir of his CIA days. Blackmailing and hilarity ensues.
There it is, the plot, more or less. The most significant thing in all these is that Cox has only a "level 3" security classification. The Russian, after looking at the material offered by the perpetrators, calls it "trivial". The CIA honchos, when heard about the scheme, don't even as much as blink. While the background music (attention grabbing but not going overboard to be distracting) sounds ominous enough to suggest a thriller, the dialogue and "action" is all comedy. But there is indeed a "dark side" (in how many Coen Brothers' movie you do not see dead people?), making this movie a delightful black comedy that is comparable to "The ladykillers" (2004).
As I said, this movie is all about performances. But before I go to the 5 aforementioned top billed stars, there is a sixth who is equally brilliant: Richard Jenkins, who has appeared in many movies but is remembered most in a small indie movie "The visitor" (2007), if you've seen that one. Here in BAR, playing the health club manager in whom Linda eventually confides the blackmailing scheme, he is a crucial balance, with his understating portrayal contrasting the other 5 stars' delicious exaggeration. Malkovich takes this exaggeration to a hilarious height. Swinton takes it towards a different direction, surpassing in her contemptuous coolness her two recent roles, the Snow Queen in the Narnia sequels and her Oscar-winning role playing opposite Clooney in "Michael Clayton". Clooney, who purportedly can be persuaded to play the fool by only the Coen Brothers and nobody else, completes his "idiot trilogy" for said Brothers in flying colour (the other two being "O brother where art thou" (2000) and "Intolerable cruelty" (2003)). Another such complete transformation is his equally cool buddy in the Danny Ocean series, Brad Bitt. Playing the nitwit gym trainer who sucks at the water-bottle from the corner of his mouth, he is so incredibly fantastic that you hardly even recognize him. This is a Brad Bitt that you must see, and admire. But if I have to make a painfully difficult choice of the best, I'd have to say McDormand. She plays this singularly simple-minded but loveably determined woman with superb energy, gusto and flair.
BAR is much ado about nothing at its absolute best.