Ideally somewhere between Newbury and Swindon...as the gags back in Britain go. "Not so much a movie as a guest list," concluded Mark Kermode, but then he doesn't really rate The Big Lebowski either.
Perhaps some of the characters here are a bit too sketchy and the plot somewhat roughly assembled, but the star cast does in fact adequately compensate for this - and I don't see why that should necessarily be notched up as a defect. (Clooney is goofily entertaining and McDormand almost moving, but Pitt over-eggs it a bit.)
We ended up feeling this was a more subtle and substantial movie than many of the critics have allowed. That's not to say there isn't a better one trapped inside it - the theme I'd have liked to see developed in a slightly more mature fashion was that of how members of the 'intelligence' community end up acting on incorrect assumptions and mis-comprehended information.
Grade: B+
Grade: B+
1 comment:
I liked it a lot too, laughed a number of times, and was suitably shocked by the several sudden acts of violence...and I liked the sort of cosmic overview that everyone is stupid, incompetent, and venal.
A few major DC geography boo-boos, but only someone who lives here would notice...
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