DVD Review: Burn After Reading
Latest Coen Brothers Dark Comedy is Replete with Silly Intrigues
Jan 1, 2009
Burn After Reading Synopsis
In what is another hilarious tale by the Brothers Coen, Burn After Reading tells the intricate story of well-meant idiots, trying to elevate their station in life, when they come across what they believe to be highly classified data, which they hope to sell to the highest bidder, in order to live in wealth.
Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich), a low level analyst at the CIA, is told he is being demoted to a lesser position, partly due to an alleged drinking problem. Furious at this, Cox decides to resign instead, wanting to have the last word in this conflict. His cold, calculating wife Katie (Tilda Swinton), is furious at this, and having had an ongoing affair with a Treasury agent (George Clooney) for a while now, she decides this is the last straw, and starts planning a divorce.
Deciding he will use whatever knowledge he has gained within his long years at the CIA to publish a tell-all memoir, Osbourne starts writing every juicy tidbit of information he can come up with, on his home computer. Unbeknownst to him, his wife's divorce lawyer advised her to make a copy of his hard drive's contents on to a CD, should he be withholding personal financials.
Through a silly turn of events, said disk ends up being accidentally left in a local gym by the divorce lawyer's receptionist, and ends up in the hands of two scheming idiot employees at the Hardbodies Gym, Chad (Brad Pitt) and Linda (Frances McDormand). Believing they hold some valuable secret information, the two attempt to blackmail Cox into paying them money to live their ambitious life plans.
Said attempt, along with the amazingly funny series of mishaps, doublecrosses and faux intrigue that ensue, is the essence of this ludicrously funny film.
Burn After Reading Analysis
What makes this movie work as a comedy more than anything, is its cast's willingness to look, act and play as a roster of imaginative, misguided ambitious morons. That these bored, disillusioned residents of the greater Washington area can even conceive of actually being involved in what they believe to be high level spy intelligence, creates plenty of room for occasional slapstick. Given the participation of actors such as Clooney and Pitt, this makes it all the more fun.
Malkovich is at home playing Osbourne Cox, a bitter, yelling, misunderstood man. That he even conceives that his memoirs of having spent years analysing raw CIA data could be worthwhile reading, is inherently funny. He is best at home playing angry, upset characters, and this role is no different. He rarely plays in comedies, and so his turn as a member of a Coen project is refreshing.
As said before, Pitt, Clooney, and McDormand are all great in their roles, which they relish in each scene. These poor idiot characters are very good at creating intrigue where there really isn't, and really sell us on their intrepretation of self importance. As for Tilda Swinton, she is an habitual deadpan, cold, calculating character actress, and was well cast in this, yet another one of her greater performances. Her character of Katie is a hated one by the audience, yet you can enjoyably see the hatred she harbors towards her drunken husband, as the film progresses.
Look for other Coen Brothers regulars, namely Richard Jenkins (as the older gym manager who hopelessly pines for Linda) and J.K. Simmons, as the CIA director who is kept appraised of the possible intelligence breach (or lack thereof), throughout the film. Simmons has the best lines in the film, look for them.
Burn After Reading DVD Features
The disc is remarkably devoid of any extensive extras, save for a very brief bit on how this is Clooney's third Coen collaboration, a very brief featurette on location filming, and an overview of the cast of misfit characters.
Burn After Reading is a treat for any fan of dark comedies, as well as fans of the Coens. It is well written, genuinely funny, and is enjoyable to watch due to its well matched cast.
8.5 out of 10 for being a fun escape, into the all too normal world of CIA spy intelligence, and our lack of interaction with it
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