Burn After Reading

by Aaron Helfferich · Published September 12, 2008

No one said it would be easy for the Coen brothers to back up their Academy Award winning film, “No Country for Old Men.” With films always seem to strike a note with intelligent plots, thrills, and suspense, their newest film attempts to hit a funny bone or two in the process. “Burn After Reading” marks the Coen brothers’ return to their adorned style of humor that no other filmmakers have seemed to master.

By using the same plot process of films like their very own masterpiece, “Fargo,” the Coen brothers take “Burn After Reading” to a new level when they attempt to throw some staunch comedy in the mix. To tie it all together, they even hired the help of three Academy Award winning actors, and two other high-profile ones as well.

Frances McDormand stars as Linda Litzke; a middle aged gym trainer who’s desperate for plastic surgery. As she claims she’s gone as far as her body can take her, her co-worker, Chad (Brad Pitt), on the other hand, has a job where he’s able to flaunt his energy, as well as a mind numbing, but approachable personality. The plot begins when these two gym employees find a disk containing the memoirs of Osbourne Cox; a recently terminated CIA analyst with drinking problems. Cox, played by John Malkovich, has even more problems when we learn that his wife, played by Tilda Swinton, is having an affair with their sleazy friend, Harry, played by George Clooney. The nature of the plot only begins to come full circle when Linda meets Harry over an on-line dating service.

It’s easy to see how messy the plot can get, especially when Chad and Linda carelessly attempt to blackmail Cox with his own memoirs. As all the characters toy with their individual issues of insecurities, the social comment alone drives “Burn After Reading” with unmistakable intelligence that reveals a society in pathetic desperation. Considering the content they had to work with could have take a drastic turn to drama at any moment, the construction of humor is what’s truly at work here.

The Coen brothers have taken their ensemble cast and melded them unto a unique vision of characters who are mere buffoons. Inching its way down to every last line of dialogue, this paranoid spy film is also an intricately constructed comedy that delivers its best punchlines in the form of the CIA director played by J.K. Simmons. It’s humor that won’t be recognized as a personal best for the Coen brothers, but “Burn After Reading” is certainly unlike any comedy you’ve ever seen.