Burn After Reading

Rating: 7/10 (14 September 2008)

Ever since 1984, the Coen brothers have made a career out of portraying naive characters caught in a tangled web of deceit, adultery, jealousy, ignorance, corruption, and stupidity, finding themselves in way over their heads, and typically resulting in their grisly deaths. Burn After Reading is no exception. The tone of this film is dramatically different than last year's spectacular No Country for Old Men, and many people expecting more of the same will inevitably be disappointed by this film. Before viewing this film, you should abandon all preconceived notions you may have based on the extremely misleading trailer, and simply walk into the theater prepared for a little bit of escapism. This film is not designed to be a serious masterpiece; that's not what it's after. Burn After Reading takes quite a while to rev up, and, quite frankly, the beginning feels very un-Coen-esquire and disappointing. Once Frances McDormand appears on the screen, the film begins to show it's potential. As it progresses, it becomes exponentially more original and involving, and four of the characters here do manage to shine, albeit some taking longer than others to do so.
The crux of the story centers around some gym workers who discover the personal writings and personal information of a CIA analyst recently forced into early retirement. The gym workers naturally assume they've stumbled upon classified material, and attempt to blackmail the analyst, setting off a wacky chain of events in which the ignorant blackmailers find themselves in way over their heads, dragging others into the situation, with inevitably disastrous consequences for all involved. The aforementioned four characters are played by Frances McDormand as a self-conscious gym trainer, Brad Pitt as her flamboyant and surprisingly un-annoying coworker, Richard Jenkins as the shy gym manager, and George Clooney in a strangely amusing role where no occupation seems to be required. Many of the other actors involved fall flat most of the time, including the usually good Tilda Swinton, whose two-dimensional character I could not appreciate very much. John Malkovich has an interesting role as the CIA analyst, but I feel they could have done so much more with this character; his last appearance in this film shows off this character's potential very well, it's just too bad that's his only great moment.
Burn After Reading portrays every last one of its characters as leading secret lives, driven by lustful and greedy intentions, manipulating those around them, and generally making life difficult for everyone involved in this tangled web. The film interestingly clues its audience in to the major points of the plot, such that we know what the main characters do not for the majority of the time, but interestingly throws in some side plots in which we, as audience members, are totally clueless. While these side gags are often rich in suspense, their payoffs are a mixed bag, serving primarily as distractions, though at times hilarious ones.
As mentioned before, this film is largely designed to be "fun," and makes NO promise that it will be this year's Oscar winner for Best Picture. Could it be? To me it's highly unlikely, unless the Academy is so enamored of the Coen brothers that they fail to recognize that this film is nowhere near as involving as No Country for Old Men, and that the plot, dialogue, characters, and setting is nowhere near as inspired as that in Fargo. But you have to hand it to the Coen brothers for having the courage to have a little fun once in a while. The last line in the film sums up the ambiguity of this film perfectly. I can give this film a recommended viewing, but just note that my recommendation is not as enthusiastic as it could be. If you read this review and think it sounds like a film you would be interested in, by all means go and watch it in theaters.
7.5/10