Burn After Reading Review

To be honest, I was expecting it to be a little better (I'll insert the "that's what she said" so you don't have to).

Notice I didn't say "I was expecting more" — I knew going in that the ridiculously-talented Coen Bros' latest project was more of the "check your brain at the door" variety than the "No Country For Old Men" or "Barton Fink" side the duo unleashes when they want to get serious.

Still, few people make smart movies about dumb people getting in WAY over their heads with complicated/harebrained schemes, such as "Fargo", "The Big Lebowski", "Raising Arizona". So I was expecting this one to be closer to those movies (all of them new classics) than to the Coen Bros' lesser-regarded movies ("The Ladykillers" or "Intolerable Cruelty").

"Burn After Reading" revolves around another group of eccentrics. A couple of gym employees (Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt) find a disk which they believe holds valuable CIA secrets, but, in reality, contains the memoir of recently-fired CIA analyst Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich). The duo tries to blackmail Cox, setting off a goofy, entertaining and overstuffed chain of events.

An operative for the State Department (George Clooney), Cox's cold wife (Tilda Swinton) and the gym employees' boss (Richard Jenkins) also get involved in the plot, which has something to say about a variety of topics ranging from the passiveness of certain departments in our government (in a couple of hilarious scenes where J.K. Simmons' CIA Superior character is brought up to speed) to online dating.

I like that the movie is strange, and I don't even mind that it's a bit all over the place. I also like that the Coen Bros don't spell everything out for the viewers, allowing the audience to figure out for themselves why certain characters act a certain way and do what they do. The directors have also conjured up two of the most enduring, violent images of any movie this year, while making it somehow fit in the realm of this zany comedy.

The problem I had with the movie was mostly with the characters themselves. I didn't mind that they weren't necessarily likable — it's that they were eccentric to the point that it was distracting. When you add these weird, damaged people with "zany" names like Harry Pfarrer, Linda Litzke, Chad Feldheimer, etc. and weird hair to an already silly plot, it gets to be too much.

That's not to say it's the cast's fault. Frances McDormand (who is married to Joel Coen) and George Clooney are both veterans of the brother's films and they acquit themselves nicely. I was especially impressed by Clooney, playing a deceptively degenerate man who just wants to get a run in. On the other hand, I was a little shocked at how little I cared about McDormand's character. Swinton, too, was mostly wasted playing a mostly one-note cold-hearted woman.

Of course, this movie is mostly stolen by Brad Pitt, who plays the most naïve person in the movie in his most appealing performance in years. I also LOVED Malkovich as Cox. While everyone else CLEARLY looks like they're acting crazy, Malkovich never looks like he's pretending to be zany and convinces you that he could possibly be a little like his character. I loved his frustration and I won't be surprised if I'm quoting his "League of Morons" speech one day. I also thought Jenkins' work was very touching, but I have a bias toward anyone involved with "Six Feet Under" that's almost as big as my "Office" bias.

In the end, the Coen Bros. delivered another funny movie aimed at adults, but I just wish it didn't feel so much like they were consciously announcing, "Hey, we're doing silly comedy again! Look how funny and weird these people are!" Or at least, if they were going to do that, it'd be nice if they had a performance as strong as, say, Jeff Bridges' in "Lebowski" to tie the room together.

Burn After Reading...B-