Forgettable and Pointless

Rating: 2/10 (23 December 2010)

You could reasonably expect that a film directed by fantastic directors accompanied by a fantastic cast would be fantastic, or at least passable. Burn After reading is ultimately a mess and a disappointment. At times it briefly flashes something resembling something brilliant but this is gone all too soon and the film is left all the more disappointing because of it. The film was just... annoying. Nothing stands out as being relevant or even interesting, the characters are, bar one, unlikable and unrelatable and the whole time you have to ask 'what's the point?' - a question the film never answers or even attempts to answer.
The closest I can to connecting with the film was when the two CIA personnel were conversing about what a 'clusterfuck' this all was and finally concluding that they learned nothing from the whole experience.
Was this the film being self-aware? Was the film just an elaborate prank on the viewer?
These two characters may not have learned anything but I did: Ethan and Joel Coen can release any piece of crap they like and they'll still get people lining up to tell them how fantastic it was.