Accidents happen after all

Rating: 1/10 (30 November 2010)

The John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinion and Tichard Jenkins' bundle serves exclusively to baffle the audience. The very high production value and direction effort of Joel and Ethan Coen unveils a struck dumb, powerless deliberate farce; a machinery that was built to produce complete we-got-a-deal-for-you big bacon butty with an epic story to tell out of soggy flavors, a McDonald's fatty festive alike campaign on-the-go. I give it a 1/10 for either feeling poisoned, or out of jealousy for so much talent wasted and so much money tossed; line up in front of the counter and wait for your turn to be foiled. The only plot device which would indicate some intelligence is in the title: "Burn after reading", a thought that Joel and Ethan might have had after writing the screenplay, or in the last line of the movie: – What did we learn, Palmer? – I don't know, sir. – I don't F-word know either. I guess we learned not to do it again. – Yes, sir. – I'm F-word if I know what we did. – Yes, sir, it's, uh, hard to say – Jesus F-word Christ. (the story concludes with this F-fetched ending). But this - deus ex machina - creates a false sense of consolation and implies a lack of creativity on the part of the authors; if the professional life of Joel and Ethan Coen took a turn for better or worse I don't know and it remains to be seen.