Coen Brothers: Need I Say More? POSSIBLE SPOILER

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2008)

If you start with the proposition that anything by the Coen brothers is worth seeing, you'll love "Burn After Reading." The leading roles belong to George Clooney, John Malkovitch, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton -- but the most noteworthy feature of this film may be the fact that Brad Pitt took on a secondary role and allowed himself to be portrayed as a brainless conspirator (with Ms. McDormand) in an effort to sell the Soviets a memoir by an ex-CIA agent (Malkovitch) dismissed for over-indulgence in alcohol. There are numerous plot twists and lots of absurdly funny scenes, topped off in this writer's opinion by J.K. Simmons (Law & Order, the understanding dad in "Juno") as the head of intelligence who receives the final report as to what happened. "What did we do?" "I'm not sure." "Let's not do it again."