Apparently perturbed by the respectability incurred by their Oscar win, Joel and Ethan Coen retreat to the comfort zone of cockamamie comedy with this Washington-set tale of espionage, blackmail, adultery and a homemade sex machine. While the cast is plenty game — especially Clooney as a vain, garrulous womanizer, McDormand as a surgery-obsessed fitness-club employee and John Malkovich as an alcoholic CIA analyst — the Coens fail to provide many reasons to care about the fates of these boneheads as they frantically bounce around inside a narrative so carelessly constructed, its eventual collapse hardly comes as a shock. There are certainly a few laughs to be found and a few sharp digs at the surveillance-happy habits of Americans living under the Patriot Act, but the Coens’ contempt for their own creations and indifferent attitude to the whole proceedings may leave viewers feeling burned.