Burn After Reading

See after reading

After nabbing just about every Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards with their dark, violent adaptation of No Country For Old Men, the Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan, are showing their comic side with Burn After Reading. But since it’s premier last month at the Venice Film Festival, the reviews have been mixed, a “love it or hate it” relationship. Here’s why:

Burn After Reading is much like the 1998 finale to TV’s Seinfeld (which also had mixed reviews); through the course of it, we saw every bad thing that it’s likable characters did over the run of the show. And though we never may have thought of it until that moment, they were all awful people. They finally got what they deserved. Burn After Reading is the exact same way.

The film opens with CIA agent Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) being demoted from his position because of an “alcohol problem” and the results thereof. Showing proof of why he’s being demoted, Cox freaks out and quits, hoping to write a book of memoirs. His vain, wealthy doctor wife Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton) is secretly planning to divorce him so she can be with her secret lover Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), who is also cheating and planning on divorcing his wife. Little does Katie know that Harry is actually a womanizer with many mistresses. One of them being Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), a middle-aged gym employee looking to get enough money to pay for cosmetic surgery by blackmailing Osborne Cox with a CD copy of his memoirs – which she and her co-worked Chad (Brad Pitt) believe to be secret government files.

Yes, it sounds complicated. But when you watch the entire debacle unfold before your eyes, it makes complete sense. You never once get lost in the story. It sounds more complicated than it really is.

When you first meet each of the characters, none of them seem “that bad.” But just like the Seinfeld finale, by the end of the film, you see each characters true color. And it’s a whole lot of fun to see the evolution of each one of them. They end up being the best group of bad people to all end up in a bad situation together.

If you are a fan of the offbeat comedy of the Coen Brothers, if you like watching Clooney or Pitt in comedic roles, or you simply just love a good semi-political satire, then don’t miss Burn After Reading. It’s a delightfully witty comedy that you won’t likely soon forget.

Photo credit: Focus Features