If you are a fan of Coen Brothers comedies, this is a must see.

Rating: 9/10 (7 September 2008)

Whenever I see a new movie by Joel & Ethan Coen I usually have a similar reaction. I am always entertained but more often than not the real entertainment comes from pondering and discussing with others what it is I have just seen. Like a good wine, their movies improve with age & repeated viewings, yielding revelations, plot twists, connections, parallels & many details that are often impossible to assimilate upon first viewing.
Burn After Reading is the quintessential Coen Brothers comedy. An original plot that cannot be compared to anything I have ever seen before, great characters, great acting, impeccable directing and editing, numerous typical dollops of Coen brothers leitmotifs (for lack of a better word) - shoes, mirrors, pinstriped suits, telephones, characters that are virtually unanimous in their vanity and fixations on working out. And MANY prolonged laugh out loud moments.
Burn After Reading is an involved, convoluted tale that is about, ultimately, not much at all. The Coens are famous for creating plots where whatever can possibly go wrong does or however somebody can possibly do the wrong thing at the wrong time or be confused and misinterpret something, they will. The usual outcome of this in one of their movies while not necessarily happy for the characters, is very satisfying to the moviegoer.
Brad Pitt turns in a great performance playing the stupid & vapid Chad Feldheimer. Frances McDormand's Linda Litzke is equally short in the brains department and long in vanity. J.K. Simmons, who stole many scenes as Garth Pancake in The Ladykillers, has a great part as a CIA superior, George Cloony is almost manic as the paranoid & obsessive Harry Pfarrer, and John Malkovich taps into vast resources of anger as the unfortunate Osborne Cox.
All in all, a great movie that I can't wait to see again. No doubt I'll catch many details I missed the first time.