Director Ethan & Joel Coen
Released 2008
Plot A disc with sensitive political information is found by some gym employees, who attempt to sell it illegally, starting a series of events that spiral into chaos.
Best on Film Rating ★ FRUGAL
Read the plot description above that I've just spent twenty minutes writing. Now read it again. Does it make sense to you? Me neither. But keep that look of abject confusion on your face: you'll need it to watch this film.
The problem with trying to write a description for the plot of a film, is that it sort of needs to have one. But what do you do if nothing happens? Because genuinely, truthfully - nothing happens. It's all craziness, no substance, no clear characters. Nada.
Now, I imagine what the Coens' were going for here was a sort of "French Farce" feel, where one group of characters run onto our stage, create havoc, exit, before an unknowing bunch then run on in their place and it all goes belly up. Thus the genre billing for this being, apparently, "black comedy".
I am sorry to advise, if this was indeed the Coen brothers' intention, that they did not succeed. This was no more a comedy, albeit a black one, than Shaun of the Dead was a comedy, which was, for the sake of argument, a horror flick. The laughs just simply don't exist: what little momentary chuckles this inspired were so forced it was akin to being tortured on a rack, before giving in and consenting to laugh for one's freedom. Brad Pitt's turn as a (possibly) gay gym instructor should have been funny, but instead he was as painful to watch as the audition phase of The X Factor.
For the most part, the idea probably looked very clever on the page, but it sadly did not translate to screen. In fact, the comedy of errors style is probably best left to the British, chaps, as the Americans just don't seem to understand the nuances of making it work.
At the end of the film, I was not only totally indifferent to the story just presented to me but also a bit peeved at the 1 hour 36 minutes that was stolen from my life to watch this. The unanimous "huh" of myself and fellow audience members as the credits rolled pretty much says everything.
As my father would say, this is the ultimate in "vanity filmmaking", in which an all-star cast gets to be paid handsomely for poncing about attempting to be funny. And I'd heard such good things! What are the Golden Globe nominations for, exactly?!
But, quite frankly, don't waste your time. In fact, take advice from the title, and burn after buying. Watch something better.
LMB