Burn After Reading Review

Burn After Reading (2008): A Film by Joel and Ethan Coen

"Burn After Reading" is peculiar, in the Coen brothers sort of way, in that we don't care so much about the characters as we do about the story. "Burn After Reading," starring such A-listers as John Malkovich, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, and the always marvelous Tilda Swinton, presents us with a set of characters so unrelatable, so disillusioned, and so strange that they inhabit their own world where everyone is so air-headed that you pray this movie isn't based on a true story.

The plot, although basic and cliche upon first glance, has so many flips, flops, relationships formed, relationships broken, and deaths that it is seems almost fresh, although it could use some tightening. Summed up as simply as possible, Pitt and McDormand play Chad Feldheimer and Linda Litzke, two incompetent gym employees who stumble upon a disc full of "top-secret" CIA information belonging to Osbourne Cox (Malkovich). Clooney plays Harry Pfarrer, the bumbling paranoid sleeping with Cox's wife (Swinton). Chad and Linda attempt to blackmail Cox so that Linda can pay for a pricy plastic surgery operation, and as they say, all hell breaks loose. J.K. Simmons, as a CIA Superior, plays what is undoubtedly the most lucid and comedic of all of the characters, watching this group scramble over documents which he believes are "no biggie." The CIA Superior is just as fascinated with these fools as the audience is. The film is notable in the fact that it does contain wonderful performances from all of the leading members of its cast, and often times shatters typecasting so beautifully that we hope to see these fine actors and actresses inhabit similar roles once again. Seeing Clooney play a character other than a forty something slick is refreshing, and Pitt is excellent playing against cast in the role of the dumbest character in the movie, the gum-chewing, water-bottle-sipping Chad.

As the lives of the characters intersect, although unlikely, we are fascinated not by what will happen to the characters, but as to how the story will conclude itself. After one of the deaths in the film, in fact, I found myself laughing at the irony of it all. There are no protagonists or antagonists, no hero or villain, no melodrama, even a climax is absent - the movie is not much more than watching to see who survives until the final act. There are scenes of surprising tension - I can't help but think of a surprisingly suspenseful scene in which Chad hides in the closet from Harry. Although few survive, the film adheres to the Coen brothers' philosophy that where there is comedy, there is also bloodshed. While I do agree with critics who say the film ends somewhat abruptly, the movie would have overstayed its welcome had it been another fifteen minutes long.

The Coen brothers have a knack for what they do. They have ultimate reign over the area of dark comedy, and will hold it forever in my heart, and in the books. Spike Lee recently criticized the brothers for "treating life as a joke": "It's like, 'Look how they killed that guy! Look how blood squirts out the side of his head!'" Shame on Mr. Lee. The Coen brothers know what they can do, and they do it better than anyone else, managing to keep it exciting and new every single time without disappointing. Not only that, but they have proven that they can do what no one else thought they could do, beautifully crafting western noir in "No Country for Old Men". That says a lot more for them than the pretentious words coming from the mouth of Spike Lee.

Rating: 3/4 stars