Review: Burn After Reading

Sorry I'm a bit late with this one. Saw it before it opened, but just got around to posting it here from the paper. Later on this week I'll have thoughts on a plethora of new and old movies.

Burn After Reading (originally publiched in The Source newspaper, 9/21/08)

Conventional wisdom would say that after dominating last year’s Academy Awards with “No Country for Old Men,” directors Joel and Ethan Coen would take the high road, trading in their quirky, bizarre comedies for prestigious mainstream projects.

But the Coens have always followed a different path. Their debut noir “Blood Simple” was followed by the quirky “Raising Arizona,” the somber “Miller’s Crossing” begat “Barton Fink” and “The Hudsucker Proxy,” and the magnificently deadpan “Fargo” was immediately trailed by The Dude in “The Big Lebowski.” So it’s not too much of a surprise that after delivering a film as bleak and devastating as “No Country” that the writer-directors would decide to recruit some of their favorite players for a goofy black comedy about sex, politics, fitness and Internet dating in “Burn After Reading.”

The film takes place in Washington, D.C., and opens as CIA analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is told he is being demoted from “The Balkans desk” because of a drinking problem. Cox, in all the profane glory Malkovich can muster, instead decides to quit and tells his wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) that he’s going to write a tell-all memoir about his time with the agency. The fact that this elicits a mean-spirited cackle from Katie tells us both about the marital discord going on and just how expendable Cox is to the CIA.

A disc containing Cox’s story notes falls into the hand of two employees at Hardbodies Fitness Center, the plastic-surgery obsessed Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt), a brainless fitness guru who guzzles bottled water and is constantly dancing to a tune on his iPod. Chad surmises that the disc has government secrets on it, and he and Linda, to the consternation of their boss (Richard Jenkins), decide to blackmail Osborne. In a (seemingly) unrelated subplot, Linda begins dating serial Internet dater and paranoid hypochondriac Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), who also happens to be dating Katie Cox on the side behind his wife’s back. The Russians also get involved, although no one is really sure why.

If the plot seems a little too convoluted to keep up with, don’t worry: That’s part of the joke. For all the labyrinthine developments and constantly intertwining relationships, the truth is that nothing really happens of any consequence, although it winds up leaving half the characters dead by the end. The Coens are in on the joke, filming it in the same style as a big-budget spy epic complete with zooming lenses and shaky frames and employing a loud, bombastic soundtrack to underscore the most mundane moments (listen closely when Linda looks through a lover’s wallet and finds ... a shopping list!).

While their serious fare is normally excellent, the Coens have always been hit-and-miss when it comes to comedies. Few would dispute the merits of “Raising Arizona,” and although it took me awhile, I’ve come to embrace the slacker brilliance of “Lebowski.” In the recent films “The Ladykillers” and “Intolerable Cruelty,” they’ve stumbled, creating comedies that land with a thud.

Thankfully, “Burn After Reading” is more “Lebowski” than “Ladykillers.” I wouldn’t be surprised if after the somberness of “No Country,” they simply wanted to blow off some steam and have some fun, and it shows in nearly every frame. The plot weaves in and out, never really gelling but simply letting the absurd characters careen off each other, almost like “Crash” meets “Looney Tunes,” with a serving of black humor and shocking violence. When it becomes apparent the plot is simply going around in circles, it’s best to just enjoy the ride and see where it ends up - and it’s well-worth it for the final scene, a gut-busting punch line to the whole big joke, delivered perfectly by JK Simmons.

The Coens have said they wrote the film based around the performers they wanted for each character, and each actor gets to do some of their best work here as they lampoon themselves. McDormand’s Linda is like a vainer version of “Fargo’s” Marge Gunderson and she still has that wonderfully naive optimism about her. Malkovich is wonderfully obscene as the alcoholic analyst who starts the whole thing off, but I particularly loved his character’s idiotic pretension; I giggled quite a bit at the way he pronounced “memoir.”

Clooney gets the most out of his work here, tweaking his ladies’ man image to make Harry both a cad and a total idiot, paranoid that he’s always being followed and proud of the fact that although he’s a federal marshal he’s never had to fire his gun once. He’s wonderfully sleazy and vain, always wondering if he can fit in a run after sex. And wait until you see what he’s building in the basement.

Pitt has a smaller role, but he gives the film the biggest comedic jolt as airheaded Chad, especially in the scene where he and Linda call Osborne to blackmail him. I have always considered Pitt to be a very diverse and intelligent actor, but here he somehow manages to erase all traces of intelligence from his eyes as Chad bops along on a treadmill. Something as simple as Chad drinking from a water bottle had me in stitches.

I doubt the Coens will see a return trip to the Oscars this year; “Burn After Reading” is a throwaway film that manages some good laughs and the actors are having a ball, but it’s really weightless entertainment with no real point to it ... which may be the point. After all, how many films do we analyze over and over for meaning only to find they have none? At least the Coens are well aware of the vapidity of their characters and the plot they find themselves in. Grade: B+