An Intelligent Comedy About Stupidity...

Rating: 8/10 (7 October 2008)

Looking much more comedic by the previews movie-goers saw prior to its release, BURN AFTER READING isn't so much a laugh-out-loud film from beginning to end as it is a sneak-up-on-you-and-catch-you-off-guard style film that speaks to the intelligence of this film about ...well ...stupidity. Yes, stupidity.
From government higher-ups to health club morons, Burn After Reading shows us the ridiculous nature of those who want one thing, and those who think they know what's going on in the world but never really do. Let me explain...
Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich, THE LIBERTINE) is having a really bad year. He's just been relieved of his assignment desk at the CIA. His wife is having an affair. He drinks too much. And now he may have lost the memoirs he was working on.
Cut to a health club and we have Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand, MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY) looking for love on internet sites, but also under the impression that she's in desperate need of some serious plastic surgery (tummy tuck, breast enlargement, you name it). Her coworkers try to help by looking over her internet dating choices. One of her coworkers, Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt, BABEL) is a bit nutty but trying to be helpful. He also discovers that a CD found lying on the floor of the ladies room has "secret sh!t" on it (could this be Osbourne Cox's memoirs?).
Cut to Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney, MICHAEL CLAYTON), a Treasury Department employee who's overactive, extramarital sex life has him in deeper trouble than he could've ever imagined. Sexing it up with Osbourne's wife (played by Tilda Swinton, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA), Harry is somewhat of an internet sexual predator, not realizing that his wife is on to him and having him tailed.
So...
Linda and Chad try and blackmail Osbourne with his lost memoirs so that Linda can get some cash for her plastic surgery make-over. But Osbourne isn't having it. Chad is in for some rough times as he breaks into Osbourne's house, trying to find more "secret sh!t" to blackmail him with.
Meanwhile, Osbourne's wife has kicked him out of the house and is prepared to move on with her life by hooking up with Harry (who's not looking to hook up with any one woman). Harry, in the meantime, is hooking up with Linda and learning some distressing news about Chad.
Back at the CIA...
CIA heads are trying to find out why Linda and Chad have gone to the Russian Embassy to sell Osbourne Cox's memoirs (Osbourne had nothing to do with the Russian sector of the CIA) and discovering that murder and mayhem have broken out since they released Osbourne from his position.
Whew! But the big question remains: Will Linda Litzke get her make-over? Sound like a lot? It is. But in the hands of master directors Joel and Ethan Coen (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) it is a wild and surprising ride.
The main thing I'd like to caution people with is that, again, this isn't a laugh-a-minute flick. It's subtle, very subtle, in the beginning. It builds on itself as the characters mesh and interact with one another. The Coen brothers show that they have the ability to surprise the audience with dramatic moments that overlap into comedic bits of interesting magnitude. Punches, gunshots, and skull-bashings are intermixed with lines of an absolute ridiculous nature, adding a unique flavor to this unusual comedy.