BURN AFTER READING * * * Cert 15 96 mins Perhaps a release valve after the tightly wound intensity of No Country For Old Men, the Coen brothers follow up with a breezy screwball spy spoof about political paranoia, populated as the intelligence is relative poster line suggests by a cast of idiots going through mid-life crises.

Given a fairly modest body count, it s closer to the comedy-violence of Raising Arizona than the more noirish humour of Fargo though it shares a certain sensibility and misunderstandings based narrative with both, not to mention the latter s star, Frances McDormand.

She s Linda Litzke, a personal trainer at the Homebodies Fitness Centre and self-image hypochondriac who, oblivious to the crush nursed by her boss (Richard Jenkins) reckons she s in need of a physical makeover to restore her faded lustre. However, since her insurance company refuses to pay for the cosmetic surgery procedures she wants, she needs to raise the money elsewhere. The answer to the problem presents itself in the form of a computer disc found in the changing room.

It would seem to contain highly sensitive intelligence service data and, recruiting doltish hyperactive, gum-chewing fellow employee Chad (Brad Pitt) as her accomplice, she intends to shake down the owner. This would be Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) a foul-mouthed contemptuously arrogant CIA analyst who quit in a huff after being demoted because of his fondness for several drinks too many.