The setup begins when a CIA operative, Osborne Cox, played by John Malkovich, is taken off a position of responsibility, and bitterly angry, he quits. He decides to write a book about his experiences, and his memoir disc winds up on the floor of a gym where two employees, Linda Litsky, played by Frances McDormand, and Chad Feldhemer, played by Brad Pitt, find it and decided to locate Cox and blackmail him to get it back. Pitt lets himself go with over-the-edge comedy antics in his uncharacteristic role, and McDormand is hilarious as a woman convinced she needs four makeover surgeries to improve her looks.

Meanwhile, Cox, with Malkovich giving another of the film’s ultra-funny performances, is in a terrible marriage, with Tilda Swinton playing his nasty, icy, contemptuous wife, Katie, who is cheating on him with George Clooney as Harry, a woman-chasing former security agent. Harry also winds up sleeping with Linda, while his wife is busy cheating on him. The sexual merry-go-round is amusing in itself, but the main fun is derived from the nuttiness on the espionage front, when Linda and Chad, frustrated by Osborn’s refusal to deal, plot to sell the Russians what they have, which the Russians regard as useless gibberish.

J. K. Simmons is a picture stealer as a low-key CIA honcho who is befuddled by the series of outrageous reports as the doings escalate. He is unflappable in his off-hand desire to just make it all go away.