Intelligence is relative.

Starring: Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, J.K. Simmons

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - great

"No, no. God no. We don't want those idiots bumbling around in this. Burn the body. Get rid of it. And, uh, keep an eye on everyone. See what they do. Report back to me when, uh, I don't know, when it makes sense." - CIA Supervisor when asked about calling the FBI

Why watch this? I love it when big stars portray bumbling idiots.

Plot Summary: Disgruntled CIA analyst Osbourne Cox decides to write a memoir, which his wife's lawyer accidentally leaves at a gym. Two dim-witted gym employees find the disc and mistakenly believe it contains sensitive government secrets. Their attempt to capitalize on their find leads to a series of chaotic and comical misunderstandings involving multiple unsuspecting individuals.

Dad's Preview: The film's plot, about a couple of gym workers who find a CD-Rom filed with mysterious files and assume they can extort the owner to pay them $50 grand, is not the point. Rather, it is how deftly the Coen Brothers took some of filmdom's greatest A-List talent, and turned them into horrible, flawed, mind-numbingly dumb characters. Watching these actors play against their standard role types results in hilarity. There's nothing really at stake; it is all about one mistake after another. Sure it's a (sorta) crime caper, but who cares - all participants are just... so... exhaustively stupid. The film is funny, savagely comic, and, in many ways, winks at the common, run-of-the-hill spy thriller. I once again found Brad Pitt's performance, as Chad the pretty boy gym rat, a work of art. He is so much more than a pretty face. This feels a bit like Fargo (1996), but reminded me more of the comedy version of A Simple Plan (1998).  

StudioCanal, Relativity Media, Working Title Films, Mike Zoss Prod.; Focus Features