Great party! You're not invited.

Rating: 4/10 (26 September 2008)

This film was enjoyable in a detached kind of way. You are not ever involved with any of the characters. It's sort of like watching a Cohen Brothers home movie or the student film of some very talented, but very in-jokey film students. It doesn't matter if you think it's funny--it cracks up the directors, and that's all that matters. It's too bad. At times, the film is brilliant; sort of like "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" if that film had been written by the "Airplane" guys and co-directed by Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch. But that only comes in sublime flashes. For most of the rest of the time, you feel like you are watching over paid if not over qualified Hollywood Movie Stars (and yes, Frances McDormand, you are one. You too Tilda)hamming it up (way too much mugging here)at some sort of comedy camp retreat for actors. You sort of wish they had found some new struggling fresh faces for these roles, since the actors here seem to be slumming, or lazy, or falling back on old tricks. Remember how refreshing Frances was in "Blood Simple"? That's what they needed here. The other thing they needed was a cohesive script. Too much happens "off screen" so to speak; when it would've been way more interesting than what we actually see. The CIA agents talking about the case is lame and falls flat, and frankly, is lazy. The other mistake was the shock moments the directors shoe-horned in for no reason other than to shock. Gore did not belong in this film. This really should've been rewritten and polished and given a strong plot on which to rest all the complications. This was a lost chance. This film really could have been a true classic. As it is, it's a notable, but forgettable minor comedy thriller. Wait for DVD.