Ethan and Joel Coen have made a fairly long career out of choosing to tackle whatever projects they feel like, sometimes eschewing an easier path to success in the process. How else to explain following up their last film, No Country for Old Men, the winner of four Academy Awards, with Burn After Reading, a zany and comedically twisted comedy populated with a lot of stupid, self-centered people?
As usual, the Coens snag a top-flight cast, which can only help serve a decidedly entertaining, yet admittedly pointless story about a CIA analyst (John Malkovich) dealing with a blackmail scheme and a cheating wife (Tilda Swinton). The blackmail situation arises when Linda and Chad, a couple of fitness center employees (Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt), come into possession of a computer disk that appears to have top secret information about Osbourne Cox (Malkovich), a longtime CIA man with a drinking problem. Cox’s drinking leads to his end of employment with the agency, putting him in a grouchy and exasperated mood for pretty much the remainder of the movie.
Initially, Linda and Chad have no plan to blackmail Cox (whose full name Chad seems humorously obsessed with saying). However, when Cox seems ungrateful and suspicious of their having possession of the disk, they decide to try and get money from him instead — a mistake that leads to them turning to the Russian embassy for help.
Mistakes and misunderstandings by the characters in the film permeate the screwball script, co-written by the Coens. These mistakes and misunderstandings include the activities of Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a married, womanizing federal marshal, who is having an affair with Cox’s wife, Katie, even while he’s seeing Linda. He also has a growing fear that he’s being watched in public. Of course, being involved in that many different romantic relationships certainly makes such a belief seem plausible.
Article comments
1 - miriam
I loved this movie. Of course I didn't like the characters, who are pretty scummy; but for that reason I didn't mind when they came to bad ends.
It reminded me of the early novels of Elmore Leonard, full of lowdown but fascinating characters.