Bitter, cynical and unsatisfactory

Rating: 5/10 (28 December 2008)

This is no feel-good movie. It has been compared to the Big Lebowski, which shows similar quirky humor, except there still was some affection for the main protagonists in that story. This is my main concern with Burn After Reading: it has no heart. Why the choleric ex-CIA man has to beat the friend of the misguided woman to pulp will always remain a mystery to me. No happy endings allowed, I guess. This is just a bitter self-righteous farce, well acted and beautifully filmed, but also deeply sad in its hopelessness. Not comparable to O Brother Where Art Thou. I doubt whether I'll ever watch this again. Self-declared aloof intellectuals will probably love it and declare it a masterpiece. In that case, I prefer not to be intellectual.