Written by Mitch Cyrus

---

After setting the world afire last year with their Oscar winning film “No Country for Old Men”, everyone wondered what Ethan and Joel Cohen would do next.  Given the success of that riveting drama, the question on everyone’s minds was if the brothers would build on that genre, or go in another direction.  They ended up making a film called "Burn After Reading" starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, and Frances McDormand.  Mitch reviews it for us in his latest.

After setting the world afire last year with their Oscar winning film “No Country for Old Men”, everyone wondered what Ethan and Joel Cohen would do next.  Given the success of that riveting drama, the question on everyone’s minds was if the brothers would build on that genre, or go in another direction. 

The answer to that is definitely the latter, as the brothers have went back in the direction they took (unsuccessfully) in “Intolerable Cruelty” and “The Ladykillers”, and this time they got it right.  “Burn After Reading” is a delightfully nasty look at the baser instincts of characters too dim to understand just how dumb they really are. 

It is very difficult to make a film where EVERY character is someone that you don’t really like, but none of them are truly evil, or so bad that you root for their demise.  There is no one to really root for in this film, for as Ah-nuld Schwarzenegger said to Jamie Lee Curtis in “True Lies”…”they’re ALL bad!”. 

The only way you can make a film with those constraints be entertaining is to make sure you have a very good script, and actors that can keep you interested in what the characters are up to.  This is where the movie succeeds, as the Coen Brothers are amongst the best writers in Hollywood.  Adding to that are actors good enough to pull off any role, and confident enough in their directors to dive head first without any hesitation in playing these kinds of people. 

Nothing and no one are spared from the Coens’ rapier wit, but the main target seems to be the beltway culture itself in Washington, D.C., where everyone views themselves as smarter and better than the rest of the country.  This ‘full of yourself’ attitude exists not only in the government employees featured in the film, but it even trickles down to some not-too-bright employees of a second rate fitness center, who have been exposed to the exploits of the rich and the powerful for so long that they are convinced they can play the game as well. 

The always excellent (and quirky) John Malkovich is the focus of the action as Ozzie Cox, a third level CIA analyst working at the “Balkans Desk”.  As the film starts, Ozzie is brought into his superior’s office and told that he is being reassigned to a lesser position due to his “drinking problem”.  Of course, Ozzie isn’t self aware enough to know that there is a problem, despite having a home bar better stocked than Cheers, and the fact that he passes out drunk almost every night. 

Indignant on the perceived insult, Ozzie quits, and sets about writing his memoirs.  As most of you would know from the trailers, a copy ends up being left in a gym, turned over to Chad (Brad Pitt) and Linda (Frances McDormand).  Chad might be the biggest dolt seen in a film like this since Bill Pullman in “Ruthless People”, and Pitt is absolutely hilarious in making this one of the most original characters I’ve seen in a long time. 

Linda is not quite as dumb, but she is about as dense in the self-awareness department as Ozzie.  Linda is obsessed with obtaining several plastic surgery procedures to give her the body she feels she deserves, and cannot understand why her insurance company will not pay for them.  Chad is her friend, and he comes up with the idea of asking Ozzie for a “Good Samaritan fee” for returning his memoirs CD.  But the plot is quickly upped to full fledged extortion as Linda thinks she can get all the money she needs for her body work, either from Ozzie, or from the Russians. 

Drug into the middle of this is George Clooney as a bumbling, womanizing U.S. Marshall, and his “Michael Clayton” antagonist, Tilda Swinton, as Ozzie’s ice cold pediatrician wife. 

Clooney and Pitt truly make this movie due to their willingness to operate without a net and completely sell out for the role.  Neither look like they are Hollywood sex stars in this film.  Clooney looks pudgier than normal, and has his salt-n-pepper beard groomed in the least flattering possible manner.  His Harry Pfarrer is the epitome of mediocre public servants who spend their whole lives stuck in the same position and basically bilking the taxpayers…but whom still think of themselves as important. 

Pitt goes even further, basically mocking his own image with complete venom.  His bad haircut and idiotic dancing are classic on their own, but he adds to it facial expressions that truly make you think that this is a person that would make Terry Bradshaw look like a Rhodes Scholar in comparison. 

McDormand gets her best role since the last time she headlined in one of her husband’s movies, “Fargo” (she is Mrs. Joel Coen).  Her performance as Linda is very well balanced, as you get to see the insecurity and sadness in her life, but you can’t feel sorry for her, because she keeps making the wrong decisions.  She ignores the obvious affection directed towards her from her boss (Richard Jenkins), instead choosing to keep going out on dates (that always seem to end up on one-night stands) with men she meets on the Internet…men who almost always turn out to be married. 

Watch out for a couple of very shocking plot twists in this film that make this possibly the best Black Comedy I’ve seen since “The War of the Roses”.  But the difference is that in the Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner film, you left still feeling a bit sorry for some of the people, especially Danny DeVito and the Rose’s children.  In “Burn After Reading”?  Even the peripheral characters that should normally be sympathetic turn out to have issues and secrets of their own, and you end up guilt-free, able to revel in the big helping of Just Deserts. 

There are also two scenes featuring one of my favorite character actors, J.K. Simons (the father in “Juno”) along with David Rasche (who is always “Sledge Hammer!” to me), as two higher lever CIA agents trying to figure out what the hell is happening.  They are onscreen for maybe a total of seven minutes in this brief, 96 minute movie, but their scenes are excellent, especially as they tie everything up at the end (and almost leave you wishing for a sequel centering on the two of them). 

Of course this film does not compare with what the Coens did last year in making the film that won the Best Picture Oscar…but that wasn’t their intention on this follow up.  What it is, however, is a very good example of a genre that is very hard to do well…something the Coens know well after swinging and missing with the aforementioned “Intolerable Cruelty” and “The Ladykillers”. 

This time, they connected on their swing, and while it’s not out of the park, it is a very respectable stand-up double. 

My Rating:  Frank Ryan (3 footballs) 

(And yes, I have no problem going back to a football related review key right after using a baseball metaphor).