Sometimes a bit all over the place, but funny nonetheless

Rating: 6/10 (15 January 2020)

"Burn After Reading" is an American movie from 2008, so slightly older then a decade, and this is another film by Joel and Ethan Coen, who certainly have their safe spot among my most favorite directors. And writers. It is not one of their best-received films, but this does not mean in any way that it isn't a good watch. To describe it accurately, you could say their best is simply marvellous and their weakest is still decent. And I agree with the critics here: This is a decent film from beginning to end in its under 100 minutes. The only perspective from which you can see it maybe slightly disappointing is if you compare it to "A Serious Man", the film they made after this one and funnily for this one here they got an all-star cast (and I like pretty much all of them), while ASM has almost no famous actors in it at all. But we talked about that one already, so let's take a closer look at "Burn After Reading". I will spare you the names and just say that (if Pitt succeeds this year, which seems fairly safe) there are 5 acting Oscar winners in the cast here. Add to that talented actors like Malkovich and Jenkins and House of Cards fans will also get to see a familiar face here. This is a comedy. It is pretty dark at times and also quite violent here and there, but in the end it is really all about how much this film will make you laugh. And it made me laugh quite a bit. It is pretty impressive how the Coens are such good writers that they even get away easily with how much everybody here in this film is over-the-top. This includes Frances McDormand (still married to one of the brothers), who scored a Golden Globe nomination for her performance here. The other was for the film itself. Tilda Swinton was nominated for a BAFTA and that shows how much they love her because honestly this was maybe slightly too much praise. The other BAFTA nomination went to Brad Pitt and that one I kinda second. He was hilarious in how he portrayed this really simple dude, who still does not seem to be a bad guy, even if he joins in when they start this blackmail idea. It's all coordinated by McDormand's character I'd say though. So Pitt's character really does not do anything too evil here except mmaybe what he does to the guy with the butt issues in the very first scene. So hanging around with McDormand's character, who goes by the somehat funny name of Linda Litzke here may not be the very best idea. Richard Jenkins' character can tell a story too at the end about that. I must say she was entertaining, but also really unlikable to me with her shallowness about these operations and also about other people. I mean sure she cries when worried about Pitt's character, who is definitely her friend, but at the end we find out again that she is fine and really only thinks about her plastic surgery, so that is a bit of a happy ending for her character. However, only for her character pretty much you could say because the circle closes there when it comes to these surgery references and where we see her in her first scene.
This first scene also includes a doctor and once again the Coens show they are the masters in making minor characters seem fun and interesting. Characters who only appear once or twice. The doctor is one example. Another example would be the greedy stone-cold lawyer in his scene with Tilda Swinton. Now he is the only character probably colder than hers in this movie, although you don't know too much about J.K. Simmons' character for example because he only shows up in two scenes, but there he is a total riot and among the very best the film had to offer that it is almost a pity that he is not featured more prominently in here. These two scenes were also an interesting inclusion from the story-telling perspective because they take a rather unusual approach and it is a bit of narration about what happened to all the characters before we see them again or even as a final conclusion at the very end. Great way to end a film. Apart from these, my favorite parts were all in the first half hour I guess. The beginning with Malkovich, Swinton and Clooney was pretty great, also stay that way when the film moves towards the "blackmailers" and that phone conversation between the duo and Malkovich's character in the middle of the night was really laugh-out-loud funny too. Sadly, afterwards the film loses a bit of its touch and turns out to be all over the place. Of course, there are still fun scenes like those involving the Russians or those linked to Clooney's paranoia. Only because you're paranoid does not mean they are not after you or how did the saying go? It is definitely really true in this film. Oh yeah, the guy Clooney's character catches eventually is also a really funny one-scene inclusion. I should not forget about him. Pitt and Clooney, still two of the biggest stars now, do not really share much screen time together, but the one moment they do, it is among the most thrilling the film has to offer. Now that went all kinds of wrong there. Not just for Pitt's. Clooney manages to calm himself down again and catch a breath, but when he finds out who he shot near the end when talking to McDormand's character, he goes completely nuts. I take it though for that hilarious Venezuela mention during the epilogue. Another one who goes completely nuts here is Malkovich and I think maybe his character was the one that required the best performance and it was fairly challenging, but he did a good job like everybody else. Okay I think this is how I will end the review now. There were moments that did not do too much for me like the application in the cellar, but for its absurdity it still worked somehow, or that for once the music in a Coen Brothers movie was not even remotely memorable. It's still a good film though, how could it not be with Lubezki in charge of the cinematography for example. And what was up with that Mulroney running gag tribute? Haha that came out of nowhere for sure. Shame that by now he is not known enough anymore for the other audience members in my showing to catch this one. Overall, I give the film a thumbs-up. Worth seeing, but probably not the best choice if you want to start exploring the magnificant body of work by these two directors.