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The Coens are back and the hilarious "Burn After Reading "couldn’t be any more different from the dark and silent "No Country for Old Men", last year's Oscar winner for Best Picture. More in the vein of their earlier films like "Fargo" and "The Big Lebowski", this mix between a spy thriller and dark comedy is another triumph for Ethan and Joel Coen in their more than impressive body of work. Without lengthy establishing scenes, we’re right there when it all goes wrong. Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich), CIA Analyst with a drinking problem, is to be downgraded at the Agency and instead decides to quit during the tirade filled opening scene. Full of rage, he sets out to make his life’s work count by writing his memoir, filled with juicy details and trade secrets. Unbeknownst to Cox, his wife Katie, played to the icy max by Tilda Swinton, is having an affair with the smarmy and equally married Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a Treasury Agent prowling dating sites on the internet for lonely women. Getting her hands on the CD with Cox’s memoir in the hopes of gaining an advantage over her husband by taking over their financial assets before the divorce, the CD ends up with her lawyer’s secretary who promptly loses it at the Hardbodies Gym where it falls into the hands of two of its workers. Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), a ditzy fitness instructor with more enthusiasm than brains, and Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), a lonely woman, trying to raise money for cosmetic operations to be young again and putting her hopes of finding the perfect man into the wonders of the internet’s dating sites (you can guess where this is going). Everything goes totally awry when Chad and Linda decide to blackmail Cox with the information contained on the CD and try to out-spy the best of Cold War spies, setting in motion a series of events that soon spiral out of control.
The plot is more than convoluted, but it’s a tribute to the Coens that they manage to spin a humorous and in no way contrived tale out of something that reads like it should be a mess. Commented on by two fellow bumbling CIA Agents who try to make sense of it all throughout the film and act, in a way, as the voice of the audience, the 90+ minutes of the film just seem to fly by, while never getting bogged down in any of its various plots and subplots. Told with a dry wit in best "Ladykillers" fashion (the Mackendrick one), the tight pacing and an outstanding ensemble cast make "Burn After Reading" into one enjoyable film. Malkovich and Clooney are at their best, but it is Brad Pitt who provides the main comedic relief and ends up the scene-stealer. He’s at once parodying himself as well as a whole genre of unsuspecting heroes being thrown into a world they could never even begin to understand. Having had three hit movies in the "Ocean’s 11" through "13" films with George Clooney, the audience only waits for them to share the frame and when they do, it’s probably the film’s most unsuspected twist in a plot filled to the brim with almost absurd twists and turns. The comedy never sinks to cheap jokes and Adam Sandler like antics, but instead manages to combine a hilariously over-the-top plot and brilliant dialogues with social commentary about the fear of ageing, broken relationships, paranoia in the digital age and dashed hopes and dreams, while also lampooning the likes of James Bond and genre thrillers that seem to have missed the end of the Cold War. "Burn After Reading" is not for the squeamish and easily offended, but then the Coens never were. Aside from missing a wood chipper, this is the brother’s best film since "Fargo" and a definite stand-out film in this year’s rather unimaginative offering from Hollywood so far. Image: © Working Title Films |
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