Not a masterpiece, but hilarious.

Rating: 8/10 (16 September 2008)

If/when I see Burn After Reading again, I'll make a point to count the number of times the phrase "what the f**k?!?" is uttered. These three words basically summarize the "plot" as well as the "point" of the Coen Brothers' new film, if it can be said to have either (hence the scare quotes). It's like a farce of old, characters constantly acting at cross-purposes (intentionally or unintentionally), confusing each other and themselves, foiling allies, helping foes, and everyone sleeping with each other.
As the CIA Superior instructs the officer briefing him of the situation says, "Well... report back to me when any of it makes sense." The movie feels like less of a finished masterpiece like No Country for Old Men, Fargo, or even The Big Lebowski, and more like the Coen bros. just got high one Saturday afternoon and decided, "hey man, let's call over some friends and make a freakin movie man. let's just do it. I'll get a keg, you call George." And the film does feature a number of Coen frequent fliers-- George Clooney and Frances McDormand most notably. Much has been made of the film's "frivolous" nature in critical reviews, and while in one sense I agree, on the other hand I'd ask what's so wrong with frivolity. The film is hilarious.
The cast is fabulous and makes the ridiculous morass of a plot work; McDormand as a gym employee obsessed with financing a set of cosmetic surgeries and John Malkovich as a hot-headed recently-unemployed intelligence agent are particularly funny. Much has been made of Brad Pitt's turn as a beautiful dumb-as-a-doornail fitness trainer and, while he is funny, it's tough to compete with the likes of Malkovich and McDormand. That's not to say he doesn't have moments of being really quite funny, but it comes off once or twice as being just-ever-so-slightly overplayed.
I think what I liked most about Burn After Reading was the fact that it was so much of a classical farce, but made postmodern (that's right, I said po-mo) by the fact that the characters constantly call attention to the farce with the aforementioned "what the f**k?!?" A number of characters say this over and over again, especially the CIA Superior, and given the weird-and-getting-weirder events of the film, it's a natural question to ask. But usually it's the job of the audience to ask such questions; here, the film points out its own absurdity. And I like that. I also like that even though we get attached to the characters, we don't really care that much when most of them die by the end. But what kind of tragic-comic farce would it be if they didn't? Anyway, it's a fun ride, and after No Country for Old Men, I can see how the Coen Brothers needed a little frivolity. It's not a masterpiece, but it's solid entertainment with a pleasing dose of self-consciousness.