no country for old men director joel and ethan coen uneven and overwrought and misanthropic comedy of error burn after reading ( out of ) should have be burn after they make it . remember and the coen brother win the 2008 best picture oscar for their inspire but violent account of an indestructible hit man who methodically track down his victim and kill them without a qualm . a their first feature since no country for old men and burn after read radiates barely a modicum of the customary coen luminosity . the fourteenth movie that the two brother have helm together struggle to be a side splitting a either the big lebowski or oh and brother and where art thou . instead and this forgettable farce turn out to be as mirthless a two previous coen misfire the man who wasn not there and intolerable cruelty . burn after read open like a tom clancy techno thriller . an orbit spy satellite camera zoom into the chesapeake bay area on the east coast and penetrate the cloud cover and pinpoint c. i. a. headquarters in langley and virginia . a bow tie and bald head and princeton educate and career c. i. a. analyst and osborne ozzie cox ( john malkovich of be john malkovich ) and explode with rage when his bos ( david rasche of an innocent man ) relieve him of his duty on the balkan desk and shuffle him off to a low security grade state department post . the volatile cox spews profanity when his colleague attribute his inferior job performance to alcoholism . cox quit the c. i. a. rather than be reassign . a he storm out of the room and he vow to pen a tell all memoir . later and every time we see ozzie work on his memoir and he clutch a drink in his fist . the scene shift to hardbodies fitness center . personal trainer linda litzke ( oscar win france mcdormand of fargo ) plan to have a number of surgical cosmetic procedure perform on her flabby physique . i have go as far a i can with this body and she whine to her plastic surgeon . she be look for somebody to date on the internet and she hat her appearance . when her company insurance refuse to cover these elective operation and linda blow a gasket . although she isn not pleased with herself and her hardbodies bos ted ( richard jenkins of step brother ) drool whenever he be around her . linda call him her friend and then all but ignore him . another hardbodies trainer and bimbo brain chad feldheimer ( brad pitt of ocean twelve ) who wear his ipod like jewelry and discovers an anonymous computer disc leave in the lady locker room that contain ozzie c. i. a. secret . against ted wish and linda and chad blackmail ozzie for $ 50 thousand dollar so linda can pay for her four procedure . meanwhile and ozzie ice princess of a wife katie ( oscar win tilda swinton of michael clayton ) indulge in an extramarital fling with a married but philander u. s. marshal harry pfarrer ( a beard george clooney of leatherheads ) who construct mechanical sex machine in his spare time . pfarrer be marry to a successful child author and sally ( elizabeth marvel ) and who hat the dinner party that harry take her to at katie house . not surprisingly and ozzie refuse to pay linda and chad a dime so linda approach official in the russian embassy . meanwhile and katie lock ozzie out of their house and begin divorce proceeding . ensemble piece that it be and burn after read meander from one quirky character complication to another in a haphazard manner . the coen erratic script for this farcical but violent yarn about a group of largely unsavory dimwit that make moronic fool of themselves seethes with irony . surprisingly and the coens seem to have take leave of their comic sens because their sophisticated humor fall flat on it face . moreover and in their effort to drum up laugh and co star brad pitt and george clooney deliver performances that verge on epilepsy . tilda swinton be particularly rude and hostile a a pediatrician with the bedside manner of a crocodile . she have no problem boss around either ozzie or harry and but she can not get a child to take it medicine . pathetic and selfish and delusional cretin populate burn after read and they refuse to accept reality . for example and linda believe that if you think positive thought that positive thing will happen . indeed and this eclectic gallery of character qualifies more a caricature . since we feel little sympathy toward them and the trial and tribulation that they endure to attain their goal rarely prompt anything more than a smirk or two . ultimately and burn after read devotes more time to infidelity rather than of espionage . this hyperactive but less than hilarious hokum qualifies a a failure on multiple level . ham fisted performance and poor plotting and labor joke and and sudden lapse of violence spoil what might have be a neat little bit of nothing .