A great Coen Brother Comedy

Rating: 8/10 (13 September 2008)

I saw this film opening night. I had pretty high expectation of this film and it honestly lived up to it. Every character is played to a T, and the no nonsense directing only helps propel the film. To begin with something must be said about Brad Pitt's performance of Chad, the very ignorant yet ever energetic gym trainer. This is easily one of Pitt's funniest performance, and one of my favorites as it drops the usual weight attached to most of his leading roles. This brings me to the next great thing about this film, each of the stars gets about equal screen time, there really isn't a 'supporting' actor in this. George Clooney is equally as entertaining as the playboy adulterer. Frances Mcdormand is as charismatic in this as she was in Fargo, it's good to see her with the Coen's again. The Coen's directing in this is one of the best things about it, the shots and the music are all done as if it were a serious spy drama, which of course it isn't. What this creates is a brilliant spoof of the spy genre, not in an over the top sort of way but with subtlety. IF you are a Coen's fan see this. While it's not as outrageous of their comedy magnum opus The Big Labowski, it is on par with their other comedy effort such as O' Brother and Raising Arizona.