Near the end of this smart, speedy romantic farce, the comic engine hits a wall and sputters. Until then, this Coen brothers film — easily their silliest — is fueled by a screwball fizz that keeps the laughs popping. It helps that the stars are impossibly charming George Clooney and impossibly stunning Catherine Zeta-Jones. He plays Miles Massey, a killer L.A. divorce lawyer. She plays Marylin Rexroth, a gold digger ready to take her husband (Edward Herrmann) to the cleaners — until he hires Miles and she gets screwed. Miles wants Marylin; Marylin wants revenge.

This script has been kicking around for eight years and feels it (L.A. greed is a dusty topic). But the Coens — Joel writes and directs, Ethan writes and produces — haven't lost their knack for laughs with a sting. "My job is to nail asses, I'm an ass nailer," says a sleazy detective (a terrific Cedric the Entertainer). "Hmm," says Marylin, "an aphorist."

In the Coen manner, the film brims with crafty character turns, including Billy Bob Thornton as a rich Texan and Geoffrey Rush as a ponytailed TV producer. But Clooney is definitely the man of these two hours. His portrait of a shark in love is a model of classy comic acting. Clooney isn't afraid to look goofy, and neither are the Coens. Even a dead ending can't spoil the pleasure of their company.

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."