Burn After Reading

 

 

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CIA Superior: So what did we learn from this?
CIA Officer: Um... I don't know.

Short Attention Span Summary (SASS):

1. CIA analyst Cox (John Malkovich) has a falling out with the agency, and decides to write a tell-all memoir.
2. His wife (Tilda Swinton) wants a divorce, and to make sure she's forearmed with his finances, she burns a copy of some of his computer files
3. Said files fall into the incapable hands of clueless gym employees Chad (Brad Pitt) and Linda (Frances McDormand), who decide to try extortion as a fund raising exercise.
4. No prizes for guessing that it doesn't quite work as planned
5. Meanwhile, Mrs. Cox is having an affair, Linda is looking for both love and cosmetic surgery, and Treasury agent Harry (George Clooney) is sleeping around.
6. Black comedy of errors follows with some rather unpredictable twists.

Fans of black comedy will thoroughly enjoy this movie, which is well directed, brilliantly acted and immensely entertaining. Kudos go to Malkovich, Pitt, Swinton and Clooney, but the top award definitely goes to McDormand, who will have you sharing her pain.

Four and a half stars go to the Coen Brothers for this bleak look at life, adultery, blackmail and people behaving badly.

Amanda Richards

Do you remember the first Blu-ray you ever bought? Mine was Burn After Reading on the same day that I purchased my first Blu-ray player. It's a title that receives very little recognition and it regularly features in sales. Why is that the case?

The movie is directed by the Coen brothers and stars Clooney, Pitt, McDormand, Malkovich and Swinton. What's not to like?

I'm hard to please when it comes to humor, but several Coen brothers films hit the spot. It's clever dialogue rather than slapstick physical humor, and some of it is unpredictable. I can't laugh when I see a joke coming from a mile away wearing a T-shirt with "This is funny, laugh now" written on it. I like to be surprised.

So what is surprising about Burn After Reading?

Harry Pfarrer (Clooney) has no redeeming features. He's married, but sees other women at every opportunity. He's having an affair with Katie Cox (Swinton). Harry is shallow, paranoid and somewhat stupid and Clooney plays the character with his usual charm and good humor.

If there is anyone dumber than Harry, it has to be Chad Feldheimer (Pitt), who works in a gym. Chad is a complete idiot in every way. His friend at the gym is Linda Litzke (McDormand), who is obsessed with undergoing cosmetic surgery to improve her appearance.

Osborne Cox (Malkovich) is married to Katie and works as an analyst for the CIA. Most of his sentences include at least one profanity and he's borderline alcoholic. The story begins with a meeting in which Osborne is told that he will be demoted, but instead of accepting the situation, he quits. Katie is not pleased, even though she's on the verge of leaving him for Harry.

There's not much of a plot. Chad acquires a CD containing the beginning of Osborne's memoir and believes it to be secrets of national importance. He thinks that Osborne is sure to give him a reward if he returns it and that leads to an amusing phone call. Linda decides that the Russians may be interested in the worthless CD and that they might reward her for the useless information.

Everybody seems to be sleeping with everyone else and what could go wrong does go wrong. This is not a serious story in any way.

There's a great cameo by J. K. Simmons who plays a CIA boss. He's utterly clueless about the significance of the events we witness because they are all meaningless. Watch his reaction at the end of the movie when he makes a decision about what further action to take.

Burn After Reading is a good way to spend an hour-and-a-half. No analysis is necessary. All of the characters have funny moments. Ignore the negative reviews and see it for yourself. You can pick it up for under $10 if you like it.

Overall score 4.5/5

Burn after reading involves a stellar cast of actors, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand and other all-star calibre characters who all play, to a certain degree, loser types, who get involved with secret CIA material. All of them lead unconnected lives that will soon be connected by a common thread tragedy. It's basically like Fargo, mixed in with some Pulp Fiction for good measure. Highly recommended.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Pointless Waste of Time
I couldn't watch more than 45 minutes of this movie. Brad Pitt's "look I'm a dumb guy" portrayal was painful to watch. I wanted to like this, but it just irritated me. Read more

Published 19 months ago by Francesca

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Coen Brothers romp
In Washington, D.C., a group of seemingly unrelated characters and a tangle of subplots makes for an entertaining, if lightweight, star-studded comedy with tragic overtones. Read more

Published on Jun 23 2009 by Kona

4.0 out of 5 stars Weirdly funny
This film is similar in style to The Big Lebowski - another movie made by the Cohen brothers - in that the plot is triggered by events that should be banal but that evolve into a... Read more

Published on Mar 31 2009 by S. Lavigne

1.0 out of 5 stars Not funny at all
I will not waste my time analyzing that boring movie. I gave it 1 star because I cannot give 0.5 star or zero star. Again the cohens bore me to tears. Read more

Published on Mar 29 2009 by SlyFox

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Great Characters and Heavy Action but . . .
Classed as one of 2008's more engrossing and spell-binding movies, "Burn After Reading" didn't quite live up to my expectations. Read more

Published on Mar 28 2009 by Ian Gordon Malcomson

2.0 out of 5 stars Burnt
Loaded with stars. I am surprised John Malkovich wasted his time, on such a complete lack of lines for him-except usually, one word. Brad Pitt seems at best, miscast. Read more

Published on Mar 1 2009 by Benjamin

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