George Clooney's directing debut takes the curious tale of US TV star Chuck Barris and his claims of a second career as a CIA hitman, and feeds it through the eccentric imagination of writer Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich and Adaptation).

The result is an entertaining and stylish but puzzling film: I was never sure what we're meant to make of Barris, whose exploits, complete with femme fatale spy Julia Roberts, are as incredible as Russell Crowe's fantasy life in A Beautiful Mind.

Barris, nicely played by Sam Rockwell, was the inventor and presenter of The Dating Game and The Gong Show, which makes him a sort of Cilla Black/ Simon Cowell hybrid. Barris sums himself up thus: "I am responsible for polluting the airwaves with mind-numbing puerile entertainment. In addition, I have murdered 33 human beings."

Drew Barrymore is very good and Clooney gives himself a modest part as Barris's CIA contact, but it's never as much fun as Spielberg's similarly themed Catch Me If You Can.