 Joel and Ethan Coen achieved possibly their greatest critical success with 2007’s No Country for Old Men, a film they were writing the screenplay for at the same time as their new release Burn After Reading. Just because they were made at the same time, however, doesn’t mean Burn After Reading is going to be anywhere near as good as No Country For Old Men.
If you go into this film expecting that, you will probably be disappointed since Burn After Reading, an admitted farce, makes no claim of being No Country’s equal, but if you go in with an open mind and are prepared to laugh at some almost unbelievably ridiculously stupid behavior you will see the Coen Brother’s latest venture as the “Queen” that it is. After all, as The Big Lebowski showed us: it’s not necessarily the plot that carries a film; it can sometimes be the characters. The first scene of the movie, after a satellite-cam zoom-in opening credit sequence backed by ominous drums, takes us to C.I.A. headquarters where Osborne Cox, played with unceasing anger by John Malkovich, is being demoted for what his supervisors believe is a drinking problem. Irate at this idea, Cox decides to quit and write the memoir he has always wanted to write. It is this memoir that sets off the ridiculousness I mentioned before after Cox’s wife, played by the always-pale Tilda Swinton, makes a CD-ROM of the memoir files to use in the divorce proceedings she is secretly planning, along with her lawyer, to put Cox through even though she’s the one cheating with George Clooney’s womanizing character. The truly show-stealing comic characters Linda Litzke (also romantically involved with Clooney) and Chad Feldheimer, played by Frances McDormand and avid baby collector Brad Pitt respectively, come into the film shortly thereafter when the lawyers secretary leaves the copied disk at “Hardbodies”, the gym where Chad and Linda work. Believing the “shit” he’s found is the “raw intelligence”, and convincing Linda of this with no problem, the two decide to try to contact Cox and get a reward. McDormand’s character wants to use the money for plastic surgery and Pitt, I think, just enjoys solving what thinks is some super-secret, classified case. Of course, the information on the disk is not really anything special and therefore Cox is unwilling to give them a reward. So what’s the next logical thing to do?...get the Russians involved, of course. The Russians are curious at first but eventually realize the disk has no substance and stop pursuing the matter, this is something Chad and Linda are unable to do before it’s too late and I’ll leave it at that so as not to spoil anything else. Besides, I think I’ve probably confused you enough as it is, which is basically the same thought expressed by the C.I.A. bigwig played by that guy who was the Juno’s Dad in Juno. He is utterly confused by the debriefing he receives on this whole matter about a former employees disk, personal trainers, Russians, etc. and says to report back when it all “makes sense.” In the end, it never really makes sense to him and is still kind of confusing to even the viewer; a fact that is just fine with me because I think that’s what the Coen’s where going for. After the bloodshed and darkness of No Country For Old Men, I believe good old Joel and Ethan were trying to go back to the silliness that they made their name with. And while it’s no Lebowski it is still worlds better than most of the films it has to compete with at the box office such as The House Bunny, Disaster Movie and all of the other crap I don’t have to see to know it’s crap. The Coen’s consistently show that they are among the best filmmakers of our time and just because they felt like being a bit over-the-top in the humor department on this one doesn’t mean Burn After Reading isn’t a great film. Or maybe you want to see psychopathic killers and dead pit bulls in every movie., you sick freak. Kevin Meehan is a writer living in Pittsburgh.
|
