GEORGE CLOONEY pokes fun at his hunky persona in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Imagine the movie executive who's pitched an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey told as a Depression-era prison escape comedy in the Deep South. Any right-minded producer would laugh at such an absurd idea--unless it came from Joel and Ethan Coen.

From Blood Simple to Fargo and film-school obscurity to Oscar gold, the Coens have doggedly remained true to their vision of polished irony, while countless others have sold their souls for homogenized Hollywood success. True, these prodigal brothers have always had detractors, who (accurately) cite their films' cold heart and cartoonish visual technique. Yet time has only sharpened our sense of who the Coen brothers are, unlike such celebrated filmmakers as Gus Van Sant or even Steven Soderbergh (who uncoincidentally gave up writing their own scripts).

O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a title lifted from the film-within-the-film in Preston Sturges' classic Sullivan's Travels, stars George Clooney as the quintessentially dopey-yet-verbose Coenian hero Ulysses Everett McGill, a convict with a penchant for hair tonic. Everett recruits fellow chain-gang members Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) to bust loose with him in search of hidden treasure. Traipsing through rural Mississippi, the trio first takes refuge with Pete's brother, who promptly tries to turn them in for the reward. Soon they encounter famed robber Baby Face Nelson (Michael Badalucco) and make a little money to propel their journey. After meeting a Robert Johnson-type figure (Chris Thomas King) who sold his soul to the devil for guitar chops, they record a song at a local radio station--this film is sprinkled with great American roots music--and unknowingly become stars. Later, they're serenaded and seduced by three wet waifs, thwarted by a one-eyed Bible salesman (John Goodman), and subject to the wrath of the Ku Klux Klan during an elaborate ceremony that's part Busby Berkeley, part Mississippi Burning. There are too many more plot twists to mention.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? finds the Coen brothers tinkering successfully with their time-tested formula. The story, like many of their films, portrays a hero who isn't half as smart as he thinks he is. But instead of oozing condescension, a common Coen sin, O Brother is endearing, like their underrated The Big Lebowski. Irony can be either corrosive or affectionate; the Coens have slowly learned to suppress their smugness and show a little more heart. Props also go to O Brother's actors, especially Clooney, who pokes delirious fun at his Hollywood hunk persona. (Additional kudos to George for using his Hollywood clout to work with talented filmmakers instead of as a personal cash cow.) The familiar Coen repertory players-- Turturro, Goodman, Holly Hunter--create seamless pieces of the O Brother puzzle. Add the Coens' virtuoso grasp of camera, lighting, art direction, editing--every visual aspect of film production, really--and you've got another dose of lyrical, harebrained mythology from cinema's favorite enfants terrible.