Quick plot synopsis: CIA analyst gets called in to the boss’ office for a demotion; instead, he quits. Tries to tell his doctor wife, but she’s more focused on guests coming to their home that evening. Among the guests are a State Department guy and his writer wife; we find out shortly that the State guy and the doctor are having an affair. Deposed analyst decides to write his memoirs; wife’s already looking to divorce him and is gathering info on their finances. Her lawyer’s assistant has some of the info on a disc, which gets dropped accidentally in the locker room at a gym.
Enter the gym dingbats. One is obsessed with having her face and body remade through plastic surgery and can’t understand why her insurance company sees that as elective work. She also can’t see that her boss is really crazy about her. When the disc with the info is found, her truly goofy co-worker quickly identifies it as “spy shit” and sets out to find out whose stuff it is. When he does, he enlists miss would-be-makeover in what slides downhill into a plan to blackmail the analyst. When the analyst balks, they take the info to the Russian embassy; a mole there in turn informs the CIA of what’s going on.
Meanwhile, the State guy is also now having an affair with the gym woman. Oh, and his wife knows what he’s been doing, and she’s having an affair of her own and sues him for divorce. And then the worlds all begin to collide and the bodies start to pile up.
That likely all sounds very confusing, and it is, but in a really entertaining way. One of my favorite characters is a CIA bigwig played by J.K. Simmons; every time he gets briefed by David Rasche, who’s playing the boss of the former analyst, all Simmons’ character can do is shake his head over the idiocy. (He also likes things tied up neatly, which works to two characters’ advantage.)
As mentioned earlier, what really makes all this work is the cast. In order of discussion above, that’s John Malkovich as the CIA analyst, Tilda Swinton as his doctor wife, George Clooney as the State department skirt chaser, Frances McDormand as the gym worker who wants a total make-over, Richard Jenkins as her boss, and Brad Pitt completely over-the-top as the co-blackmailer. What’s really great is that they all enter into these very bizarre, stupid characters with great abandon. Pitt’s the head of the class for that (hair, spandex bike shorts, hyperness and cluelessness), but everyone else is quite close behind. McDormand’s fruitless search for Mr. Right, and the body to attract him, is very poignant, as is Jenkins’ longing for her. Clooney’s a dog, plain and simple, but somehow you just can’t be that disgusted by him. No one does righteous rage like Malkovich, and he’s in great form here.
The Blu-Ray feature looks great, of course. Format is 1080P high def widescreen. The sound on the feature is English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, with French DTS 5.1 optional. Feature subtitle options are English, French and Spanish. The special features are in 1080i high def with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound (English only).
The special features are a bit disappointing. Admittedly, the Coens aren’t the most exciting interviews around, so that doesn’t help, but there’s just not much here. There’s a relatively short making-of, where we learn that several of the parts were written for the specific actors (McDormand, Clooney and Malkovich in particular). Another featurette looks in a little more detail at McDormand, Malkovich, Pitt and Jenkins’ characters, including some interesting stuff on how their costumes contributed to character development. Clooney’s character gets similar treatment, but with a little more detail and packaged as its own featurette. And that’s it.