Zany screwball paranoid thriller with faux suspense and real laughs...

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2017)

Remember that quote from Bart Simpson about cartoons being just a bunch of hilarious moments with no messages at all?
Well, you can believe "Burn After Reading" says something about the incompetence of secret services, the growing paranoia of the post-9/11 era and how you could make a mountain of nonsense out of the smallest piece of randomness, it's tempting to see some hidden meanings behind the madly elaborate plot, but I'd rather take the 'Bart Simpson' option and see this as another proof that the Coen brothers don't need to conform to any specific style or narrative. In other words, they're just having fun.
And why shouldn't they? After "No Country for Old Men", they probably wanted to get back to their roots and make a screwball comedy à la "Raising Arizona" without the luxury of a heart-warming subplot, though Frances McDormand's obsession with her plastic surgery carries something poignant despite the ridiculous height her obsession reaches. The Coens had won a Best Picture Oscar with a movie that provided one of their most iconic characters, they couldn't possibly surpass themselves two years in a row, so before turning to more serious movies, they had to make "Burn After Reading". I read many critics trying to give it more meaningfulness than it has, but what these critics lack is obvious perspective, when you realize that they made after it their personal masterpiece, "A Serious Man", you see "Burn After Reading" as a relaxed step backwards before another big leap.
And relaxed seems like the fitting word, it is remarkable how the actors are having fun playing either against type or their usual type to over the top proportions, revealing so many weaknesses and insecurities you realize this is one of these rare instances where a film is only driven by losers, even "Fargo" had bad-ass state trooper Marge Gunderson played by Frances McDormand.Speaking of this great actress, we know she's never been a sex symbol or bound to pretty glamorous roles, so it's a credit... even if they used a double- to her to set the tone right at the start when we see a doctor checking the flaws of every single part of her body, her floppy underarms, her belly but there's no voyeurism in that scene, nor is it played for cheap laughs. It is the most important scene of the film, because for all the hilarious gags it paves the way to, if the film ever had one pillar, one pattern, one unshakable element is Linda Litzke's desire to have a complete plastic surgery. Unrealistic? My wife wanted a nose surgery ever since I married her, now, she's done it so I could relate to Linda's obsession. Actually, I was surprised by the number of situations I could relate to.
The film opens with the firing of CIA analyst Osbourne Cox because of an alcoholism problem and the way the whole scene is played works perfectly. I giggled a little during the interactions between John Malkovich (Cox) and his officer (David Harshe) but then I laughed during the confrontation with his wife, a domineering nagging "stuck-up bitch" played by Tilda Swinton, accusing him of relying on her money. And I lost it when he said he was going to pull himself together and do some... consulting or that he's always dreamed to be a writer. Anyone who's been unemployed know that "consulting" and "writing" are like the euphemism for being a job-less schmuck moving in circles and slippers in your home. Some fancy words to describe the obvious yes, Cox is a loser and his wife makes him even more of a loser, she is just so unbearable, you've got to wonder what Harry found in her.
Which takes us to Harry, George Clooney as a man married to a successful children book writer... also a bored womanizer. At first, Clooney plays it like his usual Cary Grant of the 2000's but then he channels the performance of Tom Ewell in "The Seven-Year Itch , it's fun to see actors playing in or against their own tropes, Tilda Swinton being more stuck-up and pompous than usual or Clooney trying to convince us that he can be a loser too. But the gold medal of playing against type belongs to Brad Pitt, I wasn't fond of his Aldo Raine in" InglouriousBasterds" but "Burn After Reading" was the perfect platform for an over-the-top comedic performance, as a dim-witted gymnasium Dude who try to play a game too big for him, and endanger his life while a simple smack in his face almost ran him to tears. Pitt's performance is a highlight in a movie, you could tell he was still carried away by his zany persona in Tarantino's movie but it didn't fit.
Here it does because the film IS a joke, it's not meant to make a point but to make you laugh, there is some intelligence behind its seemingly pointlessness but there are two key characters in the film who act like a Greek chorus. The officer who fired Cox and his boss played by JK Simmons, their reactions to the current events are just pure bafflement, they're powerless and can only wait for ensuing development. They perfectly embody our position as viewers and while not tying the movie together, the ending provides the perfect punch-line, not that it doesn't end in a rather anticlimactic way, but it's a movie whose McGuffin is a CD that is given more value than it deserves, maybe a clever reference to the film's plot. Who cares of its meaning when it's played for gags? When even a simple picture of Putin hanging in the background make you laugh for no reason.
Once again, the only unshakable truth is that Linda wants her plastic surgery, and that's enough to drive a plot, and everyone crazy in the process, Americans, Russian and CIA included.