The best Coen brothers comedy

Rating: 8/10 (17 January 2009)

I have never really bought into Coen Brothers comedy ethos. Apart from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" which i hated , i have quite enjoyed their films but i have never found them funny. The humour seems to wash over me , so i wasn't holding out a great deal of hope for "Burn after Reading" . It just goes to show how wrong i can be !
Osbourne Cox is a low level analyst at the CIA, after leaving his job he decides he will use whatever knowledge he has gained within his long years at the CIA to publish a tell-all memoir, Osbourne starts writing every juicy tidbit of information he can come up with, on his home computer. Unbeknownst to him, his wife's divorce lawyer advised her to make a copy of his hard drive's contents on to a CD, should he be withholding personal financials.
Through an odd turn of events, said disk ends up being accidentally left in a local gym by the divorce lawyer's receptionist, and ends up in the hands of two scheming idiot employees at the Hardbodies Gym, Chad and Linda . Believing they hold some valuable secret information, the two attempt to blackmail Cox into paying them money to live their ambitious life plans.
Characters are what the Coens do best. Whether it be The Dude in "The Big Lebowski" or Jerry Lundegaard in "Fargo" or even Anton in "No Country For Old Men". In "Burn after reading" we are spoilt with fantastic characters.
Brad Pitt is superb as the slightly camp gym instructor Chad Feldheimer. I loved his phone conversation with Osbourne Cox when he informs him that he has his computer disc.The anger that comes from Cox and the surprise from Chas is brilliant. Pitt seems to put everything into this role and thoroughly deserves his BAFTA nomination for best supporting actor.
George Clooney is also great. He plays a paranoid sexual deviant that uses women for his own pleasure. His scenes with Frances McDormand ( Linda) are very enjoyable. especially the moment he shows her his new sex machine that he has made in his basement. The conversation goes something like this..
Linda:What is it? Harry : What is it? Harry : You sit down there, make yourself comfortable, put your feet in the stirrups, and... Linda : Oh my God. Linda :That's fantastic.!
The film is packed with conversation like this and i hate to admit it , i laughed my socks of throughout !
John Malkovich (Osbourne Cox) and J.K. Simmons ( The CIA Superior) deserve a lot of credit for their dark comedy acting also.
This is by far the best comedy the Coen brothers have done and even makes me think that i should go back and watch their back catalogue to see if i have missed something the first time round and if i have , in the words of the CIA Superior " What a Clusterf''k!".
8 out of 10