Filed under: Movie Reviews
Burn After Reading is the latest film from the notoriously brilliant Cohen brothers, who have brought together an all star cast for this witty comic thriller.
The Cohen brothers have utilised the best of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand to create a film that pulls in four different directions at once.
Opening with a Google style map of the US, the camera moves in on the CIA HQ where we quickly meet our angry, isolated and grimacing Osbourne Cox (played by the hilarious John Malkovich). Oz is being demoted from his analyst job with the CIA for his apparent drinking problem. After a Malkovich style rant, where every syllable is properly enunciated (“you-re fuck-ing fir-er-ing me!!”), he quits.
Upon arrival home he declares to his ice queen of a wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton) that he will write his memoirs. Her dry, lack lustre reply of, “Who’d read that?” clinches the scene.
Katie is having a one sided love affair with the sex toy loving, Internetdating and married Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) and has started divorced proceedings. The federal agent, who consistently quips throughout the film, “I could get a run in,” is a pet peeve of Osbourne Cox and just another thing on his hit list.
When a CD of Cox’s seemingly explosive memoirs are found on the floor of HardBodies gym, we are introduced to the films greatest comic reliefs; Chad FeldHeimer (Brad Pitt) and Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand).
The super wannabe cool Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading
Linda is a self-obsessed wannabe, pining for a man and plastic surgery that isn’t covered by her HMO. Chad is a Lycra wearing, pepped, exercise freak, constantly bobbing about to a silent iPod beat. The two best friends believe the memoirs to be “top secret sensitive shit” as Chad so often and eloquently puts it, and try to sell it back to Oz AND the Russians.
The plot throws another spanner in the works when Linda, another serial on line dater, finds herself on a date with Harry. Both are pleasantly ignorant about the paranoia and death that they will soon cause.
The Burn plot is continually checked by scoreless scenes with CIA directives (where the film began). The boss, played by JK Simmons, is amusingly carefree about the shootings, beating and sex that plagues this small group of fools. When it is declared as “no biggie”, the audience begins to notice the Cohen brothers underlying tones.
Notable performances come from Brad Pitt, who creates a dimwitted character, blissfully ignorant of the web that his equally inept BFF Linda is weaving and from the slightly deranged George Clooney who creates a sleazy, needy and paranoid out of his dildo wielding character.
This stellar cast produces some food for thought in this typical Cohen brothers film that has a storyline lurches, quick fire editing, relatable characters and dry black humour. The attention to detail is incredible in the film, down to Brad Pitt’s red lyrca skins and the American flag bed sheets and pillow cases that Harry and Katie have sex on.
The film essentially revolves around a small group of needy and deceitful people, that all compensate by sleeping with each other (in a sense).
The Cohen brothers obvious stab at main stream America, paranoia and national knowledge is funny, dramatic and always just that little bit weird.
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