Too clumsy; too bleak; ultimately disappointing.

Rating: 5/10 (14 September 2008)

Saw the film last night. Wondered why no one's commented on the unfunny reliance on the f-bomb rather than on more skillful dialogue revealing the characters' self-centredness. Wondered why no one's mentioned the deep unpleasantness of two characters meeting violent on-screen deaths which are meant, apparently, to make the audience laugh uproariously. Really couldn't figure out why the only character with a heartfelt sense of loving attraction to another human being meets a gratuitously nasty end. Decided, finally, that in this case the Coen Brothers have gone tone-deaf. They seem to think that graphic violence is just a kind of entertaining energy. They've lost touch with what's truly amusing about egocentric naiveté. And they've forgotten that an audience tricked into laughing at violence, anger. and stupidity ultimately feels manipulated rather than entertained. I heard last night's audience grow increasingly confused, and uncomfortable, when trying to decide how they were expected to respond to the bleakness of the moral landscape of the film. Intolerable Cruelty shows that the Coen Brothers know how to write and direct screwball comedy; Burn After Reading is evidence that they've missed the mark this time. It's as though they've stopped being interested in the humanity of other human beings.