With a cast of Hollywood heavyweights and the Coen brothers at the helm, what could go wrong?
Thankfully, for the film, not too much. But when it comes to the characters in Burn After Reading, the answer is everything.
Joel and Ethan Coen have bounced back from the hyper serious No Country For Old Men with a farce, casting several of their old standbys (George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand) in Burn After Reading, a tale of good old-fashioned American Dream idiocy.
The plot is so twisted a quick summary is nearly impossible. John Malkovich plays Osborne Cox, a CIA agent who quits his job and intends to write a memoir about his time with the agency. His disgusted wife, Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton), intends to divorce him and copies personal files from his computer onto a compact disc to expedite the process.
Katie is having an affair with disingenuous Department of the Treasury agent Harry Pfarrer (Clooney). The disc finds its way to the floor of a Hardbodies gym locker room, where employees Linda Litzke (McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Pitt) find it, mistake it for something "sensitive" and attempt to use it to blackmail Cox. Hilarity and classic Coen brothers trickery ensue.
The film recalls several earlier Coen works with its tone, plot and casting. The plot's twisting nature and the characters' ineptitude to deal with their situation recalls The Big Lebowski, with a darkly comedic tone that smacks of Fargo. Finally, Clooney's performance and the constant underlying stench of marital infidelity cause the film to resemble the under-appreciated Intolerable Cruelty.
It quickly becomes clear this is the Coens' joke on their audience, almost a response to the comparatively linear nature of No Country. Nothing is as it seems, except perhaps the reliable stupidity of the characters. The intentional complexity sometimes bogs the movie down, but the individual performances more than make up for it.
The film is full of refreshing, giddy fun. Clooney and Pitt ham it up as a pair of stumbling buffoons, and several running gags (literally!) keep the humor afloat despite some dark subject matter. The laughs just keep coming as Clooney suits up for a jog following every sexual tryst. Clooney's exploits also provide the glue for the plot. His character, Pfarrer, often gets tangled up with several of the other characters simultaneously.
Meanwhile, Pitt's stereotypical meathead meets the challenge issued by his co-star, bicycling in a tailored suit to meet with Cox and then sniveling and whining after Cox delivers to him a well-deserved punch in the face.
McDormand's character is ostensibly dimwitted as well, yet she demonstrates a kind of shrewdness the other characters lack. She has a goal and never abandons it, which is the eventual punch line of the movie. Elsewhere, J.K. Simmons plays a CIA director in a few hilarious scenes that act not only as a comedic device but also as a means of unraveling the onscreen confusion.
Moviegoers looking for a pure comedy might be a little taken aback by several jarring scenes of brutal violence, but anyone familiar with Fargo's woodchipper will feel right at home.
Because of its skilled cast and entertaining story, it might be a good idea not to burn this movie after watching it.
Grade: B
