SMT Weekly Flick by Paul Krismanits
Worth Burning?
George Clooney and Frances McDormand having in a laugh in Focus Features’ Burn After Reading.
Burn After Reading (Rated R) 95 mins
After No Country For Old Men rocked critics’ worlds last year (including yours truly), Joel and Ethan Coen apparently decided it was time to relax a bit. The same men who brought both the haunting Fargo and the demonstrably silly The Big Lebowski once again have brought us another follow-up that is the antithesis to its predecessor. In other words, as serious and dark as No Country was, their latest film, Burn After Reading, is equally silly and light. As No Country poked at the modern American lifestyle with its grit, Reading does so with screwball humor.
As per usual with the Coens, Burn After Reading is full of A-list talent. Enter John Malkovich More at IMDb Pro » (at his comic best) as CIA analyst Osbourne Cox, who is royally ticked off at his job and quits abruptly, planning to write his memoirs in retirement, despite a hefty dose of skepticism from his wife Katie (Tilda Swinton). Osbourne proves resolute though, prompting Katie to start moving forward with divorce proceedings. This is not to be a surprise as Katie already has another lover, the married, perverted federal marshall Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney). Of course, this does not sit well with Osbourne, and he begins to plot his revenge. This leads him to place his secrets onto a CD which just happens to find its way to the floor at a local gym. Step in Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), an employee who desires nothing more than to change her image with plastic surgery, which unfortunately is not covered by her insurance. Lucky for her, she and her fellow employee and best friend Chad Feldheimer (a very un-cool Brad Pitt) discover Osbourne’s disk and decide to blackmail Osbourne to the tune of $50,000, or else give his disk to the Russian Embassy. As could be expected, knowing the Coens, what follows from here is a relentless hodge podge of manic antics, all intended for the purpose of giving American ideals of bodily perfection a humorous punch in the face.
While awfully funny from time to time, the action often gets so frantic as to skip a beat or two. Pitt and McDormand together are the gem of the film, as their attempt at masterminding a blackmail gets frequently interrupted by their natural ditziness. Pitt is as we have never seen him before, creating a character as goofy as the real-life Pitt is cool. Clooney also pulls off his scenes with a hilarious undercurrent of dementia, and shows the comic talent he portrayed so well in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (another Coen masterpiece). Then there’s Malkovich, who completely lets loose in the film, giving longtime fans of his a special treat of a performance. These performances are what makes the film work, and the Coens should be commended once again for bringing out the kind of things a viewer never thought they would see from certain actors.
What Burn After Reading does miss is an emotional core, an essence that brings any kind of true connection to any of its characters. This is a movie the viewer will sit back and watch, and only watch. While it is funny and often charming, the end result is that one would be hard-pressed to actually care about anyone involved here. The characters run about willy nilly from beginning to end, leaving no time to really get to know any of them. This is both the film’s weakness and its strength as it provides the Coens a perfect setting for throwing their characters around to make any point they want, while unfortunately leaving the audience without much to take out of the theater with them other than some good laughs. Unlike No Country, which left us all with a chill in our spine, Burn After Reading doles out a few lines and memorable scenes, without any emotional effect. Of course, the same could be said about The Big Lebowski, which left us all with an indelible image of the Dude that will never be forgotten. Burn After Reading doesn’t quite hold the same effect, but maybe all it needs is a little time.
SCORE: 3.5/5
