Review: Burn After Reading

It’s been a little over 11 years since I saw Burn After Reading, at 15 years old me and some friends went to see it in theatres and walked out really not knowing what it was about. Now several years later and being older, somewhat wiser and more familiar with the Coen Brothers works I’ve come to realise that I still don’t know what it’s all about but I can recognise that that’s the whole point.

The film opens with C.I.A. Analyst Osbourne Cox facing demotion at his job for his drinking problem, so instead he quits and storms off without any clue about what to do next. He decides to write a memoir about his time in the C.I.A. but his wife Katie points out that his low-level clearance means nobody would be interested. Katie meanwhile sees Osbourne quitting as an excuse to fast-forward her divorce proceedings to continue her affair with Harry Pfarrer, a US Marshall married to a children’s book author.

At the behest of her lawyers, Katie prints off Osbourne’s financial records for use in the divorce case, not realising that his memoirs are included in the files, when one of her lawyers leaves a CD with the records on at the gym it is found by managers Linda Litzke, a middle-aged woman wanting cosmetic surgery to fight the signs of aging and Chad Feldheimer, her confident but dim-witted friend. Thinking that they’re got sensitive information on their hands, the two of them try to sell it back to Osbourne with limited success thanks to his quick temperament, so while they search for other avenues to go down, Linda tries her hand at internet dating and comes across a strong match in the face of Harry.

Essentially the plot breaks down into a team of idiots bouncing off each other trying to piece together what’s going on but being too selfish and stupid to realise it’s absolutely nothing, Osbourne to too focussed on his own anger to see his wife cheating on him, Harry is too paranoid about being followed by spies to realise that he’s not being followed by anyone, Linda and Chad think they’ve found the key to international espionage but Linda too focussed on getting money for her surgeries and Chad’s too much of a fucking dunce for them to understand what it is they have and that it’s just financial records and the sad words of a drunk guy.

The Coen Brothers have done films about nothing before – Big Lebowski being the top tier of the genre – but this feels different and not always in the best way. Due to the heavy involvement with the C.I.A. and eventually even the Russians there’s a sense that there might be a political angle, or at least a government one that never really comes into play, in fact the C.I.A. characters chime in to say they don’t understand what’s going on either. By result the film feels a little hollow, not helped by its rather short runtime, with Lebowski there was the sense that there was a much larger kidnapping story going on in the background and we’re following a throwaway side character but there is to larger story here, we’re following the main characters and they’re all morons.

That’s not to say the story isn’t without its high points with Clooney’s Closet scene still being a well presented surprise even after so many years and the fallout carrying the film through its second half but for having so much going on that means nothing – and I know that’s the point – it’s hard to find what’s driving everything forward.

Thankfully the characters save that, this being a Coen Brothers comedy nearly everyone seems to be having a great time playing dumb, the one weak link I’ll say is Tilda Swinton as Katie, Osbourne’s wife, she’s a little too uptight and never factors that much into the story other than a connecting piece between Osbourne and Harry, she’s not bad in the film, just bland.

John Malkovich as Osbourne is arguably the film’s straight man with him being the smartest one of the cast but constantly getting riled up by the stupidity of those around him and his short fuse temper blowing up in his face, case in point his attempts to get his memoirs back ends in him punching Chad in the face and getting his car rear-ended. Malkovich is good in the role but his absence from a large chunk of the second act is definitely felt considering the film started with him, it just feels that after the Coen reached as far as they could with Osbourne’s marriage they didn’t know what to do with him until the end.

A larger focus is put on Linda, played by Frances McDormand, who inadvertently becomes the film’s main character though more through her relationship with Harry than the CD Records. Like most everyone else Linda is an idiot but her idiocy comes through desperation rather than stupidity, her age is catching up to her body the combination of working in a gym and being unlucky in love is giving her confidence issues which is fuelling her desire for expensive surgery. Out of everyone Linda is almost the most likeable until you realise that her actions – unintentionally but still – are getting people hurt. Where you decide to fall with her depends on how guilty you feel she is because of this, personally I was, and technically still am, ok with Linda thanks to the likeability of McDormand but realising what I did has put her in a slightly different light.

George Clooney plays George Clooney playing Harry Pfarrer, a womanising US Marshall with a bad case of paranoia. Honesty though, aside from the sleeping around this isn’t the Clooney we’re used to, he can appear smooth and charming sure but once the shit hits the fan he’s neurotic, panicky and clueless, often jumping to action without thinking – i.e. the closet surprise – and freaking out over the consequences. The dichotomy is fun and allows Clooney to both embrace his personality and play against it, I’ll never say that Harry is one of his best acting roles but he is funny and plays to the film’s strengths, though his inclusion does force it into a sexual farce that feels a little unnecessary at times.

Standout character has to be Brad Pitt’s Chad, from his misfired attempts at blackmail to his overuse of ‘shit’, Chad is easily the funniest part of the film – aside from maybe the JK Simmons cameos – and Pitt plays it perfectly. Everything about the character is great, his stupid bleached tips, his ill-fitting suits, his complete and utter lack of skills for going against a C.I.A. employee exacerbated by his foolhardy confidence in himself, Pitt fully inhabits the themes of the film and uses them brilliantly, it’s easy to forget that Pitt can do comedy and here he does it well.

As mentioned before The Coen Brothers have done comedies well before and have done comedies based on nothing very well, but they might be spreading themselves too thin here, in particularly trying to build a comedy around a spy thriller that amounts to nothing changing except a few people are dead. On paper that sounds promising and it almost works in practise but like I said earlier, the film struggles to propel itself forward without a focus, you can argue that the CD Record is what’s driving the story and there’s a strong argument but since it’s of no real importance anyway it falls flat.

That’s not to say I didn’t have fun with this, the circus at play here is a fun concept to explore – and sadly all too relevant in American politics these days – any scene with JK Simmons had the biggest laughs of the whole thing and there’s a real sense of almost animated enjoyment from everyone involved that permeates throughout the film, making even the most shocking moments funny even if they shouldn’t be. It’s an enjoyable if hollow experience, interesting but not utilising as much of its concept as it could’ve, funny but lacking in what the Coen’s have brought previously. Which is a shame because I think there is the start of something great here in regards to secret keeping, vanity and American Paranoia (TM), maybe this just came out at the wrong time, maybe in today’s fucked up climate there could’ve been more material for the Coen’s to work with and build something better.

Or maybe with hindsight this rings too true to be funny anymore.

I might be old enough to appreciate Burn After Reading now but I’m still not sure if I got it, I don’t want it to come across like this was a disappointment, it might not be my favourite Coen Brothers movie but I enjoyed myself. Mostly thanks to the cast who were all game for appearing in the most serious silly movie that I can think of, in particular Pitt and Simmons who got the best laughs out of me. It might mean nothing and it might ring hollow and it may or may not be satire, but it’s fun if nothing else.

7/10