To wit, a sparkling Coen job

Burn After Reading (MA15+) 4½ stars National release A FEW weeks ago I conducted an all-day illustrated lecture at the University of Sydney on the films of Joel and Ethan Coen.

George Clooney in the new Coen brothers comedy Burn After Reading

Burn After Reading (MA15+) 4½ stars National release A FEW weeks ago I conducted an all-day illustrated lecture at the University of Sydney on the films of Joel and Ethan Coen.

During my preparatory work, which consisted of watching 12 of their 13 features again (the exception being their misjudged remake of The Ladykillers, which I find impossible to sit through), I was struck once again by the way they inject grim humour into the blackest thrillers (Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, No Country for Old Men) and how their comedies, from Raising Arizona onwards, deal, in one form or another, with criminal endeavour.

Indeed, the only Coen brothers film I've seen in which none of these elements occurs is the short they made last year as part of the Cannes film festival's 60th anniversary celebration film compendium, Chacun son Cinema. Obviously filmed during the making of No Country for Old Men, their three-minute gem has a cowboy, played by Josh Brolin, arrive at a twin art-house cinema in search of some movie entertainment. A helpful ticket seller extols the virtues of his choices: Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game and Climates, a recent, semi-minimalist Turkish film by the excellent Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

The cowboy chooses Climates and emerges two hours later satisfied with his choice. Here the Coens are touching on their other obsession: cinema itself.

The Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men was such a triumph for the Coens, artistically and at the box office, that many felt it would be a hard act to follow; the knives were out for Burn After Reading, a comedy set in Washington, DC, and featuring an all-star cast. Variety, usually supportive of the Coens, dismissed it as sophomoric, snarky, arch and ungainly. Happily, it is none of the above.

The film begins with Osbourne "Ossie" Cox (the wonderful John Malkovich), a career analyst for the CIA, being demoted because he has a drinking problem; Cox reacts with explosive anger ("This is a political crucifixion") and returns home, where his wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton), expecting guests, is in a foul mood. Among the guests are Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a federal marshal and serial womaniser, and his wife, Sandy (Elizabeth Marvel); Katie and Harry are having an affair of which Ossie is, so far at least, blissfully unaware. Ossie's decision to avenge himself on his superiors by writing an explosive memoir about the state of the CIA triggers a series of events that results in misunderstandings galore and more than one fatality.

Meanwhile, in another part of the city, Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), who works at a gym called Hard Bodies, is unhappy with her life. A single woman, she makes use of internet dating but usually winds up in bed with a bore. She's unhappy about the way she looks, too, and is convinced she's in urgent need of plastic surgery, although her sympathetic boss, Ted (Richard Jenkins), a former priest, obviously adores her.

It seems as though Linda's luck has changed when a computer disk is left behind by one of Hard Bodies' clients -- the secretary of Ossie's lawyer -- that contains information pertaining to his proposed memoir. However, to Linda and her dimwitted colleague Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), it's top-secret material and if the CIA doesn't want it, well, maybe the Russians will, for a hefty fee.

The great strength of the Coen brothers is their scripts, and Burn After Reading is not only one of their most skilfully plotted films, it's also one of their wittiest.

The intricate way the characters are moved around and interconnect, as if on a chessboard, is matched by sparkling dialogue, particularly welcome when so many American comedies are staggeringly witless.

Another characteristic of the Coens is their impeccable casting, the way every role is given depth. It goes without saying that in a film such as this, actors of the calibre of Clooney, McDormand, Swinton, Malkovich and Jenkins will have a field day; the revelation here is Pitt, who is hilarious as the musclebound Chad who, when asked by a suspicious Russian diplomat whether he's ideological, can only reply: "I don't think so."

Beyond the leading roles, the Coens ensure that even the most minor character is perfectly cast (shopkeepers are always memorable characters in their films). Further down the cast list, actors such as J.K. Simmons, who plays the befuddled CIA boss, David Rasche as one of his senior officers and Jeffrey DeMunn as Linda's plastic surgeon, handle the sparkling dialogue with relaxed professionalism.

Burn After Reading may have annoyed some American reviewers because of the caustic attitude it takes towards aspects of the US establishment. But with its cheerful disregard for authority figures it bears some similarity to films of the late 1960s and early '70s, when J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon were suddenly fair game. In any event, this is a comedy-thriller of considerable distinction.