By Mr.Death (And This Is My Sister, Kodos)
Fresh off of their Oscar winning movie No County for Old Men, the Cohen Brothers decided to switch from that very heavy movie into territory they are more well known for, the dark comedy. I decided to check this one out after looking at all the other crap playing at my movie theater. (The Women? Disaster Movie? Bangkok Dangerous? We’re living in a dark time, people…) Plus, I just love the Cohens. But was this movie able to hold up the great standards the dynamic duo are known for? Yes, yes, and yes! This movie turned out to be one of my favorite movies of the year (so far).
He hit me!
It’s hard to really go into the synopsis much without giving anything away, and trust me, for this movie you want to go into it knowing as little as possible. But I’ll try. The story follows two moronic gym trainers (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand) who stumble upon files from the computer of Osborne Cox (John Malkovich). Not understanding what these files actually are, they attempt to blackmail him with them. Meanwhile, Osborne’s wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) is having an affair with ex-Marshall Harry Pfarrar (George Clooney), and they get roped into this whole mess. Look, it’s really hard to explain, I suggest you just see it, and you’ll understand what I mean.
What really makes this movie great is the cast. They all get their parts spot on and play them out to as far as you can go. George Clooney is what he seems to always manage to be, a charming and likable rascal. John Malkovich is also awesome, I love him. It’s funny, I always imagine him as this really dumb guy because I first saw him in a film adaptation of Of Mice And Men, with him playing Lennie. But in this movie he plays this really sort of high end, Princeton attending, classy guy. So throughout the whole thing I kept imagining him going “Tell me about the rabbits, George.”
But, by far, Brad Pitt steals the show as a vain, idiotic, and possibly gay gym trainer. He was so good I provided you with a picture of him up there. Brad Pitt is often only seen by most people as this really cliche teen idol, but personally I think he is a good, legit actor. And this movie proves he can be a great comedian too. In every scene he was in, he had so much fun, doofy energy that you fall in love with him in an instant. He really brought this movie from a dark little comedy to one of my favorite movies of the year. That’s how good he was in it.
The plot also had a lot of twists and turns. I’m not going to say anything, but there are definatly a couple moments where you will say “I was totally not expecting that!” I also liked the pointlessness of it all. Nothing that happens in this movie really means anything on the whole. Another great thing about this movie was, although it’s a dark comedy, it feels very light throughout the movie. Then, when actually really dark stuff happens, it’s so has so much more of an impact on you.
I can understand if people do not like this movie. It’s definitly an aquired taste, not a huge crowd pleaser like Iron Man. But the theater I went to, which probably houses the most unsophisticated crowd ever, were all laughing throughout the film. It’s a good movie. Give it a chance. Just don’t try to compare it to the Choen’s other movies. It’s not trying to be No Country, it’s different. Appreciate it for what it is.
2 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
I was just about to go see this with my Dad :)
Nice review.
Its pretty good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The best piece of advice I heard going in was “don’t think about the plot too hard. Just enjoy the ride.” That was probably the most sound advice I have ever received for a movie.