By Lindsay Christ
The new film “Burn After Reading,” contains a unique mixture of comedy and suspense that only one set of brothers can achieve-the Coens. Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, the movie has audience members on their edge of their seats in one scene and laughing hysterically in the next.
“Burn After Reading” starts off with Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) being demoted from his CIA agent position due to an alleged drinking problem. Outraged and convinced that it is the product of petty politics, he decides to quit, and to the horror of his wife, write a memoir instead of getting another job. His wife, played by Tilda Swinton (“Michael Clayton”), is already cheating on him with mutual friendHarry Pfarrer (George Clooney), and decides to take this opportunity to investigate getting a divorce. She confiscates all of his files to see what she can get out of him, but a mishap lands a disk containing his memoir in the hands of two nitwit fitness instructors (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand). Thinking they have stumbled upon top-secret information, they decide to try and milk it for all it’s worth in order to get a monetary reward. Add in the fact that everyone has someone who is mysteriously following them and what follows is sheer pandemonium.
Clooney, who was in “O Brother Where Art Thou,” and “Intolerable Cruelty,” collaborates with the Coen brothers for a third time. He convincingly plays the role of a serial womanizer who is very obnoxious and pathetic. As dislikable as he is throughout the film, he does provide adequate comic relief with the outlandish antics he uses to seduce women.
Academy Award Winner Swinton gives a strong performance as the cold-hearted wife of Cox. The complexity of her character comes into play when it is discovered that she is being used as much as she is using. Malkovich is hilarious as the disgruntled ex employee who generally has a bad attitude all around. Despite his coarse language and constant pessimism he is surprisingly one of the more likable members of the cast, and viewers feel sympathetic as they watch his life crumble before him.
The funniest characters in the movie were without a doubt Pitt’s and McDormand’s. Pitt takes a break from being on the cover of “People” magizine and raising random children to take on the role of Chad Feldheimer, one of the clueless personal trainers who try to use Cox’s disk in order to get money. He surprisingly steals the movie, and is the funniest character, incessantly chewing gum and bopping his head cluelessly throughout. He is at his prime when trying to play hardball with Cox. The biggest flaw in the movie is the fact that his role was a bit smaller than it could have been. McDormand was not quite as hysterical, but was still good as the desperate romantic who spends her days trying to find money for various plastic surgeries and love on the internet.
At first it’s hard to see how all of the eccentric characters fit together, however the Coens do a nice job tying up the loose ends by the time the film finishes. And while it’s almost impossible to try to keep track of who’s spying on who, that’s half the fun.
The ending is very typical of Coen brothers, but the fact that their one of a kind style shines through during the film is what makes it so good.
John Malkovich, shown above, plays former CIA agent Osborne Cox, whose memoirs are taken and held for ransom by two gym workers. (allmoviephoto.com)