Review

Review Date: 14-September-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Burn After Reading (2008)

Burn After Reading is a dark comedy in which a slew of doofuses becomes tangled in each other's lives and events beyond their understanding and control. George Clooney plays a needy T-man whose good looks belie his vulnerability. He is married but having an affair with Tilda Swinton (in patented bitchy mode), who is herself married to John Malkovich, a CIA agent fired from his job as the movie begins. Quite by accident, a CD containing some of Malkovich's personal and business documents is left in the locker room of a DC gym where it is found and read by the staff. The gym's love-struck manager (Richard Jenkins) smells danger, but the employee he worships (Frances McDormand) teams up with another employee (Brad Pitt) to take advantage of their discovery. While McDormand is merely shallow and naive (she needs money for multiple cosmetic surgeries), Pitt's boyish trainer couldn't count to twenty without taking his Reeboks off. The ridiculous team tries to get Malkovich to reclaim his CD for money — a bad idea which, along with the rampant adultery and insecurity, creates a snowball that becomes an avalanche.

This is not the first Coen brothers movie I have found difficult to critique. More than usual, the response to their work depends on a person's mindset and sense of humor. The brothers know what they are doing in a technical sense, and they attract fine actors who show up ready for fun. (Pitt approaches hilariousness, perfectly delivering the line that accounts for most of my goodwill towards this flick.) But is what they are doing worth time and money? That depends. Of course the studio would say, If it makes a profit it was worth it. So I speak of the viewer's time and money. If one likes stupidity mixed with blood and eccentricity mixed with pathos, maybe Yes. If one is unsettled by the fatal flaws of fools and the paranoia that makes Americans (I must quote Pitt) worried about the security of their shit, maybe No.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.