Movie Reviews
Burn After Reading: Worth Several Looks
Danielle Turchiano |
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 If the Coen brothers say they wrote a part for you, you take it. If the Coen brothers say they wrote a grocery list for you, you take it.
In Hollywood, distinctive character-driven work seems to be few and far between, so it is no wonder why so many big name stars are attracted to Joel and Ethan’s diverse body of work. That must explain why Frances McDormand wasn’t scared away from their newest film, Burn After Reading, even though her introductory shot simply read “Close up on a woman’s ass: Pale. Bare. Middle-aged.” Joel and Ethan put McDormand in their first film--which was also hers--Blood Simple, so though they are quirkier than most, she still trusted she would receive a much greater reward than risk with Burn After Reading. And she (along with the rest of the supporting cast of acclaimed talent, stars like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, J.K. Simmons and character actors David Rasche and Richard Jenkins) will not be disappointed when audiences, too, find the draw of this dark comedy too great to be ignored.
Burn After Reading follows an ex-CIA agent, Osborne Cox (Malkovich), who is trapped in a loveless marriage with a stuffy wife, Katie (Swinton), who is having an affair with a haggard federal marshal, Harry Pfarrer (Clooney), who is also sleeping with cosmetic surgery-driven Hardbodies gym employee, Linda Litzke (McDormand), who teams up with her goofy personal trainer co-worker, Chad Feldheimer (Pitt), to extort money from Osborne when they find a CD of his “secret CIA shit” in the locker room of their gym. Considering nobody really knows what they are doing (government agents included) and everybody is sleeping with everybody, the result is a hyper-charged comedy of errors in which numbskulls with a get-rich-quick scheme take the backseat to some ridiculously hilarious emotional backstabbing. Marital hi-jinks is not an uncommon topic for the Coens (who also brought us Intolerable Cruelty), but they one-up themselves here, interweaving a web of deceit that seems harmless enough at first glance but quickly spirals toward murderous.
 What’s perhaps best in Burn After Reading is that the Coens thought of who they wanted in each character as they were writing said character and then they managed to actually book them, so the roles feel as tailor-made as the wardrobe. So much careful thought and planning went into each--after all, the filmmakers had a huge task at hand in creating regular people out of bona fide movie stars--but the success is in the details, as everything from Clooney’s thin gold chain to Pitt’s unfortunate blond highlights to Malkovich’s beat-up old car screams specific to the characters in the most subtle of ways. Though Malkovich and Swinton play roles not unlike ones they have seen before, both Clooney and Pitt actually go against type as somewhat bumbling fast-talkers, and their natural charm shines through the simplicity and reminds audiences why they are so versatile. After countless turns in deeply dramatic work, it’s also just nice to see them lighten up and have some fun.
Though slightly surreal, the Coens are never hokey nor ostentatious with Burn After Reading, despite utilizing the occasional prop gags (Pitt is glued to his MP3 player and water bottle like they are additional limbs and Clooney tinkers with a homemade “adult” chair in his basement). Instead, they use such elements to build upon the intricacies of the men and women unfolding (and unraveling) on-screen, and the size of the gags perfectly complement the personality of the individual character it affects. McDormand has a particularly amusing encounter with an automated telephone service, for example, and Swinton basically acts completely “above the neck” to convey her disgust for her husband and the pleasure she will take in bringing him down: each is short, simple and sweet, whereas some of the bigger, physical gags take place in Pitt’s arc, as he seems to be there mostly for caricature-esque comic relief.
 It is hard to say too much more about Burn After Reading without fearing spoiling the screening: half the fun of the film is the reaction had when surprising events occur for these men and women, who may be of a high social standing, but still act with the maturity of a teenager. When Swinton’s character has to scold the warning of “Stop all the foolishness!” it appears to be almost a tongue-in-cheek nod to what has happened to filmmakers at the hands of studios in general as of late. After all, so much emphasis is put on big box office and Academy recognition, it seems much of the fun has gone out of filmmaking; it has become much more of a business than an art. Here, in a very basic way, the Coens have stripped their talent of such self-awareness and taken filmmaking back to its purest form: they are telling a story they want to tell in a way they want to say it, without worrying how they will look or what people will think. They have always gone against the grain in that way, and this time they took the most well-known, successful talent from the top of the A-List with them, dressed them up and directed them to be silly and without abandon. That seems to be almost unheard of lately, and with the result being so unique, really, viewers won’t be able thank them enough for it.
The recognizable faces in Burn After Reading may be a large part of the initial draw to theaters, but it is impossible not to get wrapped up in their performances instead of their names. Burn After Reading offers surprises--and laughs--around every corner and may be the most fun you’ll have at the theater all year.
Burn After Reading is now playing in theaters.
For more information, visit filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/burn_after_reading.
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