Hot on the coattails of last year’s surprise hit and Best Picture winner, No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen are back with their new black comedy, Burn After Reading (Focus Features). Though this spy comedy has one of the most complicated and confusing plots in recent memory, when watching the film it is evident that the Coens wouldn’t have it any other way.
The film’s plot revolves around two gym employees, Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), who find a computer disk containing the memoirs of former CIA agent Osborne Cox (John Malkovich, Beowulf). They try to use the disk to blackmail Cox, mainly so Linda can pay for a slew of cosmetic surgeries. Meanwhile, Cox’s marriage to his wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton), is falling apart, and she is sleeping with another man, Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney, Leatherheads). As the movie progresses, everyone’s lives fall into disarray, leading to a strange and hilarious climax.
Burn After Reading, which runs only a little over an hour and a half, is inconsistent throughout. At some points, the film drags at almost a snail’s pace while at other times it is funny and fast paced. It is hard to determine exactly what the film is about, but, as mentioned earlier, that seems to be the point.
Fans of the Coen brothers’ other work will likely have mixed feelings about the film. While it is much better than recent comedies from the Coen brothers, The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty for example, it is not quite on the same level as their recent classic comedies The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. It is in no way comparable to the recent No Country for Old Men. They are, in terms of genre, in two very different universes.
All things considered, Burn After Reading is still a good film, much better than most movies that are released in the dumping ground that is September. All of the players give great performances, as expected since they have all been Oscar nominees at one point or another, and it is fun to watch them interact and play off of one another.
The actor who truly steals the show, however, is Pitt, delivering charm and big laughs as the dimwitted Chad. Any scene he is in guarantees some hilariously dumb lines and plenty of ridiculous dancing. Unfortunately, his screen time is limited
It is also a treat to watch recent Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton in more lighthearted fare. The actress, who normally takes more dramatic roles, is wonderfully unnerving as the uptight Katie Cox. It is also interesting to see her character and Clooney’s Pfarrer in a relationship, especially after the two butted heads in last year’s Michael Clayton.
Finally there is J.K. Simmons (Juno) in the small role of a nameless higher up in the CIA. Though he has only a few minutes of screen time, he uses them to fullest effect and expresses what the audience is probably thinking rather bluntly. His character ties everything together and, almost, makes sense of everything that happens.
Burn After Reading is another solid film from the Coen brothers, and it seems to be one that was made for fun more than anything. Oscar material it isn’t, but it certainly is worth a trip to the theater.
