Droll but a bit pointless

Rating: 7/10 (24 April 2011)

Personally, I'm not such a huge fan of films by the Coen brothers; but it's hard to deny that each time they make a film, it's a different one. 'Burn After Reading' is a riotous spy-thriller, a viciously black farce that in which one can see traces of the brothers' previous films (deadpan scenes echoing 'Fargo', but also some of the zaniness of 'Raising Arizona', for example) but which is far from just a remake of any of them. As always, there are moments at which you can't help but chuckle; and it's fun to see Brad Pitt and George Clooney in such unheroic roles, although John Malkovich and Tilda Swinton do most of the scene-stealing. But the script suffers from a surplus of unoriginal swearing and a standard flaw of many of the Coen's movies: there's no reason to care for any of the characters. It's inventive and in places amusing; but it's still a film lacking in heart.