At The Movies: Burn After Reading

Starring: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, and Brad Pit
Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country For Old Men)

Whatever hot streak existed in Hollywood belonged to the Coen Brothers. Coming off of the scorching (and deservedly so) No Country For Old Men, Joel and Ethan decided to change pace from the gritty and intensely violent to their other favourite type of genre, comedy. Most of their films include a type of comedy, whether blatantly joyful or vigorously dramatic, they manage to find comedy in violence, horror, and danger. Their vision is certainly amongst the elite in the biz and their track record speaks volumes about it. They are so prolific that their most recent picture, Burn After Reading, combined former Coen-ers with new Coen-comers to form an elite cast of A-list actors in this mysterious comedy that has laughs at the forefront to present a much lighter side of the Coen’s.

Viewers beware: lower your expectations. That’s not to say that this film is bad, because it isn’t; however, with the cast and the people behind the camera, one could have extremely high expectations. It is essentially one of the funniest incomplete comedies and mysterious incomplete mysteries a viewer might ever see. Because it never really sides with one genre, it tends to beat around the bush of a few and this leads to a clutter of appetizers as opposed to one big main course with delectable sides.

The film starts with Osbourne Cox (Malkovich), a CIA analyst who is fired because of his drinking problem. He wants to write a memoir (a word he can’t pronounce) to tell of his CIA experience and some CIA secrets. Somehow the disc gets into the idiotic hands of Hardbodies Gym employees, Chad (Pitt) and Linda (McDormand). Linda, who is obsessed with getting her body surgically enhanced, feels that if she blackmails Cox, she might be able to get enough money to pay for the surgery. She uses Chad as help to embark on a mission to secure this bribe; they even go to the very uninterested Russian agency. More plot twists involve Harry, (Clooney) who is cheating on his wife with Cox’s wife, (Swinton) and this provides for one of the seemingly unnecessary plot points in the story.

There’s plenty more to the story and this proves to be the movies biggest problem. There is so much going on that by the end of the film, two CIA agents (one being the always hilarious and on point J.K. Simmons) spend 3-5 minutes unraveling and explaining the story line. It is unsure whether this is intentional to prove some sort of point about the US homeland security or whether the Coen’s really just wanted to wrap things up in a rather short movie. It ends up being a large cluster of really good things never reaching their potential.

The biggest positive for this movie is the cast. Full of award nominees and winners, the film really uses each member to some comedic and mysterious extent. Malkovich is great (as usual) as a really angry and bothered man, while Pitt provides some of the films funniest moments with some great physical comedy. The Coen’s, especially with Pitt’s character, pay great attention to detail and even the blonde streaks in Pitt’s hair add bits of humour. Clooney and Swinton are also great, but as mentioned before, their affair doesn’t prove that valuable. Clooney has a bunch of side stories that are all rather interesting, but as stated, never fill out their potential.

It is an enjoyable film and I was simply never bored. I was, however, torn between genres and was not sure which one to fully commit to. Because the film never does, it is hard for the viewer to and this leads to a rather frustrating viewing. The film is filled with a lot of laughs, and in typical Coen fashion, the smallest prop placement will give a bit of a laugh (note the Vladimir Putin poster in one of the clips). There is action, about two scenes, and they are so sudden and unexpected that laughs generally followed them. This is once again a Coen trademark, in which they find comedy in the darkest and cruelest fashions. It is a much lighter movie than “No Country”, but, it is also one that will leave many unsatisfied and incomplete. At least they made us laugh and not cringe from suspense.

Overall Score: 72/100