Burn After Reading :: Wessex Scene Online

Burn After Reading

23rd November 2008
Will Roszczyk

About this film

Title	Burn After Reading
Director
Release Date	17 October 2008
Certificate
Genres	Comedy, Crime
Our Rating	4.0/5.0
Shown at Union Films Sunday 11th January 2009 7:00pm

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Mar 09 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
May 08 - In Bruges
Nov 08 - Pineapple Express
Jan 09 - Film 2008 - The Year In Review
Feb 09 - Harvey Birdman Attorney at law

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Burn After Reading Trailer

The Coen Brothers combine with Pitt, Clooney & Malkovich to create an epic dark comedy.

After the Oscar-winning success of their last film ‘No Country For Old Men’, Joel and Ethan Coen effectively could have just stopped, taken a breather, and enjoyed glancing at the lil’ golden men on their mantelpiece for a few years, but here again we have a star-packed Coen Brothers movie. In terms of comparison to ‘No Country...’, ‘Burn After Reading’ continues the trend of dark, madcap comedies from the writing and directing siblings, and once again, their quirkiness, with a little help from Messers Pitt, Clooney and Malkovich, creates a quite crazy little movie.

Oswald Cox (Malkovich) works for the C.I.A. as an analyst – not a high-profile job there, but one that nevertheless he is angered to be demoted from. Furious at the agency, he writes his memoirs, whilst unbeknownst to him, his ice-cold wife (Swinton) fools around with sleazeball Harry Pfarrer (Clooney), an unhappily married and promiscuous Treasury agent. Gym trainer Linda Litzke (McDormand), who wants to drastically change her appearance, and her colleague, the idiotic Chad Feldheimer (Pitt), discover a disc which serves as a catalyst for the five to come into contact with each other, and what’s on the disc is nowhere near as important as the chaos that ensues...

Mere months after ‘No Country...’, the Coens have managed to rustle up some of the best actors out there (and some friends from previous flicks) to make what can best be described as a dark comedy. Trust me in saying that watching this movie, you may find sympathy for the mere minimum of one character. It’s that simple; every character in the film is utterly pathetic in one way or another, and as a result, it makes the madness that unfolds that much more hilarious to watch, because there is simply no empathy you feel for these people.

Clooney, Malkovich and McDormand have the majority of screen-time, and Malkovich’s short-fuse insanity is used to great effect throughout. Clooney plays a parody of the public perception of himself in Pfarrer - a man who is always in need of women, and sex, played by one of the acting world’s most notorious bachelors. McDormand and Swinton are the two women presented here, and as with most Coen movies (‘Fargo’ in particular, which also starred McDormand), Litzke is a complete kook, causing massive ripples in search of a pathetic reward.

Support-wise, Brad Pitt dominates. He’s not so much stretching his acting talents as playing an idiot and getting paid for it, and his character Chad is one of the highlights of the movie. Everything he says is totally moronic, and his actions throughout his and Linda’s machinations are so ridiculous they serve as further hilarity (a sequence with a phone call, followed by a meeting with another character embodies this idiocy). J.K. Simmons (or Juno’s dad to many) manages to almost steal it away in an appearance as a C.I.A. boss who is totally mystified by the events going on around the agency with this disparate group of people, and he serves to embody us, the viewers, in his total bemusement at their antics. Swinton seems to keep getting these heartless, icy women roles, but she plays them so well that she may as well keep it up.

The film is not without fault: I enjoy many Coen films, but they require a certain sense of humour, and I don’t want to encourage people to see a film that they may not find at all funny. It’s also very short, and this, along with the all-too serious little scenes along the way (it is dark comedy after all, not all laughs), does make it quite a disjointed and perhaps rushed effort. Simmons’ character, at the halfway point of the movie, orders his colleague to ‘report back to me when it all makes sense’ - a sentiment that some will find in the complexities of the plot (though only some). Regardless, it’s suitably mad enough for any person looking for a good laugh, and for fans of the Coen Brothers, it’s a must-see addition to their filmography.