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Turning up to CIA headquarters for a top-secret meeting, jaded analyst Osborne Cox (Malkovich) is incandescent with rage to discover that the big secret is that he's being shown the door. Seething, Cox returns home to drink and begin writing an expose of his time at the Agency. Learning that he has been ousted, Cox's wife Katie (Swinton), who is having an affair with married federal marshal Harry (Clooney), decides it's time to show Osborne the door too.

When Hardbodies gym workers Linda Litzke (McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Pitt) stumble upon a disc containing notes for Cox's memoirs, they see an opportunity to change there lives. The disc seems to contain sensitive information – the kind of information someone might pay a 'reward' to retrieve. This could be a chance for Linda to get those cosmetic surgeries she's been dreaming of…

Written and directed by the Coen brothers, Burn After Reading is a comedy thriller with an enviable cast. What happens when the worlds of national security and fitness collide? As Clooney says, "Despite the Washington setting, this picture is really about shockingly dumb people doing dumb things involving sex and other situations."

The film is fast-paced, and at just 95 minutes a fairly succinct tale of misunderstanding and murder. It's a return to brighter territory after the devastating and brilliant No Country for Old Men, but there are still the Coens' characteristic flashes of darkness and menace. These are nicely counterbalanced by moments of sheer silliness – many of which feature Pitt, who gives a stand-out performance as McDormand's gym buddy cum accomplice to blackmail. Chad is, as Brad Pitt puts it, "a dumbbell, a gum-chewing, Gatorade-swilling, iPod-addicted bubble-brain," and the scenes where he plays against Malkovich's cynical analyst, Cox, are some of the best in the film.

The dialogue is funny, and clever, and Burn After Reading is difficult not to like. It would be pretty hard to love though. The Coens excel at switching direction and deftly, even recklessly, thwarting expectations. For the most part this works well, and they have a star cast to keep the audience on board. But towards the end the film begins to swerve recklessly and a patchy close fails to put it back on track.