We’ve been dogging the Coen Brothers’ “Burn After Reading” for some time now assuming it was the worst kind of wild, screwball nonsense because of the trailers which we never really, but we can happily say we were wrong. It was neither the madcap silliness we thought it would be, nor was it too off-the-rails.
Yeah, the film is full of chuckleheaded idiots, but that’s the whole point and this dark comedy with thriller-like intrigue was, for the most part, tremendously enjoyably, wickedly arch and and deliciously funny.
At a lean 96 minutes, the dexterous film didn’t fuck around and really got to the meat of the plot with economic precision and timely beats. There were perhaps an odd 20 minutes around the first quarter that had us slightly bored, but the quicker and more tangled the story became, the funnier and more sleek its model became (a silly romp or not, these guys are Academy Award winners for a reason, they’re master architects of structure both in comedic and dramatic contours).
Brad Pitt shined the brightest as the knuckleheaded fitness instructor who along with Frances McDormand finds the memoirs of ousted CIA agent John Malkovich (a McGuffin if there ever was one). His amazing dance routine, Ipod headphone struts and goofy Gatorade-swilling demeanor has us in stitches. Malkovich, his character perennially outraged with the stupidity of the world, was a class act pretentious blowhard and Clooney’s paranoid Federal Marshall character provided tons of idiotic laughs as well.
The Coens notoriously don’t analyze their own work or put a lot of deep though into the meaning of their films, but if one were going to note what this was about on a broad level, one would have to say its about the league of moronic idiots that is the general populace today, be it CIA chiefs, or lower level civilian boobs. Full points should be given to CIA bosses, J.K. Simmons and David Rasche (particularily awesome); their comedic rapport of bungled intelligence fucking nailed every moment and these scenes had us dying.
Cleverly constructed and never aiming beyond its means, “Burn After Reading,” might be slight, and a bit of a lesser afterthought in the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre, but it was also immensely enjoyable and quite a good laugh. We were wrong about this one and we’re not afraid to admit it. [B+]