Strange but satisfying

Rating: 8/10 (19 October 2008)

The Coen brothers' have recently struck form with their dark, tense and stylish neo-Western "No Country For Old Men", which was more in tune with their past films such as "Blood Simple". With "Burn After Reading", they return to the territory of "The Big Lebowski", with a dash of "Fargo". This is at times hilarious, suddenly brutal and violent and quite bewildering at points. It is hard to describe the experience of watching this strange cocktail unfurl, but, at the end, it is found to be a satisfying experience.
This film, which is at its heart an absurdist rip-off of spy films, struggles to find itself, initially. It toys around with the idea of being some kind of modern day, mid-life crisis drama, but this jars with these characters who are designed for farce. As a consequence the film is a slow starter, and throughout the film the "drama" comes back briefly and never works, except in the case of Richard Jenkins' gym manager, who is truly sympathetic.
After half-an-hour, though, the comedy starts and grows throughout the film. At the head of this is a magnificent performance from Brad Pitt as the idiot Chad. Yes, the character is grotesque and two-dimensional, but it is a brilliant comedy performance with perfect comic timing. The star-filled cast is excellent, though some feel a little constrained (Clooney most obviously). Nevertheless, they and the Coens give this film many memorable moments as the comedy generates from a genre which should be dealing with world powers, where this film is actually concerned with ordinary people doing bizarre things which are, to the outsider, inexplicable. It's all summed up by the brief but memorable appearance of a bewildered J.K. Simmons as a CIA chief. Halfway through he delivers the line "Report back to me when it makes sense" and, at the end, he says "What a Clusterf***". These, essentially, sum up the film.
As for the Coens, although their script is a little confused, their direction is spot on. From the opening shot to the last, they take the parody of overblown spy films to the extreme. The look, sound and feel of the film are nearly perfect. The zooming in for no reason, the ludicrous music and many other stylistic touches make this highly enjoyable at every turn.
Is it perfect? No. Not by a long shot. Is it up there with "Lebowski" or "No Country"? No. What is the film then? It is intelligent, bizarre, funny, confused, stylish, confusing, at times brilliant, often strange and a satisfying and enjoyable time at the cinema.
4 stars out of 5