First Hit: Although it wasn’t over-the-top funny, it was clever and quirky enough to keep me entertained and engaged.
This film has a big named cast with George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Brad Pitt.
The basic premise is that Linda (played by McDormand) desperately wants a man in her life and needs money to have four cosmetic surgical procedures to make her beautiful and enticing. She works at a gym called Hardbodies along with Chad (played by Pitt) who is a comical, simple, goofy, and a good looking trainer.
They find a CD in the locker room with some financial information and the memoirs by a CIA agent written by Osborne Cox (played Malkovich). Linda and Chad try to blackmail Cox for the information on the CD. Cox, who was recently fired by the CIA as an analyst because of his drinking, is angry at his former bosses and his wife Katie (played by Swinton) who is a cold calculating woman.
Katie is planning to divorce “Ozzie” because she is happier screwing U.S. Marshal Harry (played by Clooney). Harry is married to a children’s book author who travels a lot so he has many affairs by dating people he meets on the internet, including Linda and Katie.
As the blackmail plan unfolds Linda and Chad find out the data on the CD is useless to anyone but Cox. From this premise the rest of the film is filled with more affairs, killings, and plot twists.
The Coen Brothers keep the film tight and crisp in its execution. The writing is also, crisp, to the point and the actors clearly (especially Pitt) seemed to enjoy their roles.
Overall: This was a funny movie but not a over-the-top really funny movie.