Burn After Reading is a Coen Brothers film riddled with a host of regulars including: George Clooney (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou), Frances McDormand (Fargo) and J.K. Simmons (The Ladykillers). Burn After Reading tells the story of two gym employees, who discover a CD with information about the CIA’s operations. Linda (McDormand) wants several cosmetic surgery procedures done, and Chad just wants a “prize” for recovering the invaluable information on the disc. This comes after Osbourne (Malkovich) leaves the CIA with a grudge, only to find Katie (Swinton), his wife on the brink of a divorce. Harry (Clooney) is a close friend and manages to find himself caught up in the web of lies, deceit and danger that is Burn After Reading.
The Big Lebowski was an adventure that scraped itself together from a series of coincidences and bad timing. Burn After Reading has a similar narrative structure, which bounces from character to character - weaving a story out of nothing. The character connections develop until the story is ready to explode, with the CIA’s roving eye keeping everything under wraps. The characters are eccentric, the story is unpredictable and its a film that just keeps evolving. The Coen brothers make a welcome return to their own brand of comedy, crime and adventure that is plain addictive. The cast is phenomenal and they almost have a first choice ensemble, bar Tilda Swinton. Brad Pitt brings a dorky persona to the role of Chad, and his hairstyle and attitude are a comedy waiting to happen.
Burn After Reading is a crime caper with a dash of comedy and awkward violence. The tone of the performances is just right. This time it’s not the mafia, but the CIA and the bag of cash is just a data CD. The running joke is that everything that seems so big and confidential in each character’s world, actually means diddly-squat to the big gun operatives. Burn After Reading isn’t in the same league as The Big Lebowski in terms of bad language, but manages to shoot off 60 f**ks in the space of 96 minutes. The beauty of Burn After Reading is that it manages to grip its audience without really going anywhere. The message is that nothing in life seems to go as planned, and the script echoes this sentiment. While the script is well-written, it’s the ensemble and directors that make it entertaining. The performances are what sustain its madcap machinations and one could describe it as the ‘Seinfeld’ of crime capers.
The bottom line: Off-the-wall.
