Reflecting on this movie, I thought of Mozart. An acknowledged genius who wrote such masterpieces as Don Giovanni, piano concertos, and symphonies, he was not above filling time by writing serenades and divertimenti. Though not profound masterpieces, these lighter pieces, also written in forms at which the composer was a master, and which he was able to turn out almost at the drop of a hat, are highly entertaining.

Movie audiences are currently aware of Joel and Ethan Coen, aka the Coen Brothers, as the authors and directors of No Country for Old Men, which many consider a masterpiece. However, newcomers to the Coens’ world might not realize that such heavy drama is not the sort of thing they usually do. Normally, they sparkle in creating such offbeat trifles as Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, or my favorite, The Hudsucker Proxy. Add Burn After Reading to this list. No masterpiece, it’s a divertimento: a well-crafted diversion that offers moments of excellent entertainment.

The film is a comedy of manners with a criminal twist. Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), fired from government service, decides to write his memoirs. Cut to Cox’s gym, Hardbodies Fitness Center, where a janitor finds a computer disc on the locker-room floor. Not knowing Cox or anything about his memoirs, the gym’s fluff-headed trainer, Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), is convinced that it’s "hot shit" secret spy stuff. He and fellow employee Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) decide to blackmail Cox by threatening to turn the disc over to the Russian Embassy. Concurrently with this business, Cox’s wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton), is having an affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney). Then things get complicated.

The humor is uneven, ranging from the clever to the tasteless, and logic often flies out the window. The characters, though all a bit wacky, are thoroughly likable. McDormand scores as Litzke, who’s shopping on the Internet for a husband and wants money for some cosmetic surgery. Clooney is affable as a hapless philanderer, who really doesn’t know what he wants. Malkovich is often over the top, and Swinton could freeze fried eggs with a glance. The manager of the gym, played by Richard Jenkins with his usual deadpan solidity, is in love with the oblivious Linda. And J.K. Simmons plays a clueless CIA boss to perfection, transforming ineptitude into art. He has the funniest lines in the movie.

Best of all is Brad Pitt. In a hairdo that screams "fey," he is the male version of the archetypal dumb blonde. His stage business of little ticks and gestures has been honed to a T. He’s not only funny, he’s convincing, and reminds us that he’s really quite good at comedy.

Burn After Reading is a case in which the whole is definitely less than the sum of the parts, but those parts are entertaining enough to be well worth investing 96 minutes in enjoying them. As a divertimento, it might be a near masterpiece.

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