Burn after Reading

I want to begin by saying, this is one of the most difficult reviews I have ever written.

The Coen Brothers are movie nerd idols. They have created amazing comedies and amazing dramas/thrillers. They won their first Oscar last year for the incredible No Country for Old Men and wasted no time getting back to work. Instead of trying to recapture the No Country for Old Men themes, they went as far away from it as possible. The trailers certainly showed that much. With Hollywood Heavyweights Brad Pitt and George Clooney at their disposal, the Coens wanted to go back to being goofy. But, are they able to do it? Do they recapture the goofiness so prevalent in their comedies?

Osborne Cox(John Malkovich) has just been demoted by the CIA for his drinking problem; instead of accepting that he quits. He decides he is going to write a memoir and the disc including his notes is left at a gym where Chad(Brad Pitt) and Linda(Frances McDormand) find it and decide they want to get some money for returning it. They do think it is highly classified material after all. When the exchange goes horribly, and hilariously wrong, Chad and Linda take it to the Russians. Linda wants money for cosmetic surgery because she thinks she needs to be hotter for romantic reasons. She finds dates on-line and finds Harry(George Clooney). Harry is married and is sleeping with Katie Cox(The ice queen Tilda Swinton) who is Osborne's wife. He is now sleeping with Linda as well. He is a very unhappy guy, who seems to love his wife, but cannot control himself. He is also building something in his basement and the reveal of that is probably the most out loud you will laugh in the movie. Every so often, the CIA pops back up to kind of try and explain what is going on, but the story only gets more confusing from there. People die and double cross and in the end no one is really sure what happened, but isn't that the Coen way, really?

Burn after Reading is not the kind of movie I really can recommend even though I loved it. it is rarely a laugh out loud kind of movie, but it is a chuckle silently movie, but the chuckles are endless. Brad Pitt is funnier than he will probably ever be. It is a more supporting role than the trailers will lead you to believe, but every time he is on screen, I was chuckling. Everything he does or says is funny and I would like to see him used more in light hearted fare. Clonney is totally affable and funny, but he is at his best in the very last moment you see him. The look on his face and his line delivery right at the end offer up some of the biggest laughs you are likely to get. The star, though, is John Malkovich. Profanity spewing, alcohol swilling and shouting are the only things he really does, but everything about it is funny. He gives a very mannered performance, which would be annoying in a more serious movie, but in a outlandish and broad comedy like this, it works to a hilt. The women, Swinton and McDormand, are both excellent even if I spent the whole movie wondering if Tilda Swinton was sexy or not. I still cannot decide. She does play icy very well and McDormand, in a role completely lacking any sort of vanity adds a sense of sadness and realness to her character. It gives someone to root for, in an otherwise cast of self absorbed no-nothings.

The Coens knew they could never top No Country for Old Men, so they did not even bother trying. This movie is as far away from that one as possible in every aspect except the sudden violence. "Burn" has two flashes of violence and in true Coen fashion, they are sudden and shocking bursts of violent fits. They pace the movie perfectly and often times supply the laughs merely shooting someones feet as they walk down a squeaky hall. They wrote a pretty funny, if utter pointless, script full of great lines and they did it with hardly any of the kind of comedy that is in right now, which was cool. "Burn" comes off as an old 50s type of comedy, with much more profanity, much much more profanity. I would like to go back and count the amount of times the "F-bomb" is thrown around. I think people will be turned off by the randomness and pointlessness of the movie, but those are some of the best qualities in my opinion.

In a song Eminem once rapped an entire song about nothing and then in the very last line summed it up by saying "I just did a whole song and I didn't say shit." Who knows the why he did it, but my guess is that he did it because he could. He was mocking everyone who hated him and joking with those who loved him. His fans got it and his detractors hated it. In the very last scene of this movie, J.K Simmons- some of the best work anyone has done for only being in a movie for 5 minutes- has a scene with David Rasche where they are kind of reviewing what has happened and in the end they come to the conclusion that it is one big "cluster fuck" and they have no idea what just happened or why it just happened. Coen fans will get it, non Coen fans won't. That is just the way it goes. That scene left me laughing for a few minutes and I know people who felt it was mocking them for watching it. If you go to the movie, stay during the credits for a bit to hear one hilariously awful song. It is totally worth it.

Final Grade" B+