I avoided this all fall, turned off by at least two reviews that suggested a really ugly film, with an ugly turn in the middle of the story.
But I just got an awards season screener, watched it at home, and was convulsed almost from the top. The movie is black, but hardly too ugly (and I'm a wimp when it comes to movies taking dark turns... I don't like to go there.) The bits of violence are less than 30 seconds of screen time, total -- this is a character driven farce with intricate absurdist plotting that's actually easy to follow and wildly funny, all the more so for its improbability. People will be surprised at the comparison, but its mixture of sex farce plotting and spy parody, it reminded me of the original PINK PANTHER. I laughed the way I did watching Capucine avoid Peter Sellers.
Clooney's performance is a gem, to my thinking a modern update on his grerat turn in OH BROTHER (still my favorite Cohen film). He is lean and mean, very slimmed down after SYRIANA and CLAYTON, and is terrific as the hyper-sensitive roue. Even Malkovich, who I have grown to loathe in his middle age, is used effectively. His scenes with Pitt -- starting with a middle of the night phone call that's almost a classic -- are just hysterically right.
McDormand is funny, but sometimes self-aware. She's the only question mark I have, though not a big one. I laughed at her, but I was also aware of her working hard, sometimes too hard, to bring the role to life. She's so innately sophisticated, it was initially hard to buy her as this ditz (I know, I know, FARGO... but she always reads so 'adult' and savvy).
And then there's Pitt -- priceless. I had seen the clips -- all the dancing sequences especially -- but was still surprised. What makes the character work is not just the bone-headedness. It's the total package - Pitt's about 40, so it's that much more bizarre to see the aging boy-man straining to be an adultr. And the man has a smattering of knowledge, which makes his rare bursts of articulated insight that much more baroque. I loved him.
I have a feeling a lot of people viewed the film as I did -- ad judged it unfairly by the trailer, which seemed to give away the whole film. Amazingly, there's much more there than we saw in those bites. If you missed it, take another look. It will likely be out on DVD just before the holidays or after.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
