At first, BURN AFTER READING comes off as a silly trifle of a movie, a shot of film levity after the heavy (and brilliant) Best Picture-winner "No Country For Old Men." (And I STILL can't believe a movie so dark was given the Oscar!)
But about 45 minutes into the film, you start to notice that BURN AFTER READING is a sibling to "Fargo," and not just because Frances McDormand, a stallwart actress in her husband's films, comes closest to an encore of her "Fargo" performance here.
All of a sudden, the screwball comedy of this film turns on a dime and you find yourself gasping in shock as much as you were laughing before. And then BURN AFTER READING isn't such a trifle, after all. It's as serious as any other Coen Brother film -- comedy or drama.
The plot has been well-publicized. A dim-witted gym employee (a fantastic, dippy Brad Pitt) finds a disc in a locker. He thinks it's filled with "top secret shit"/intelligence of some kind. His co-worker (McDormand) gets excited at his idea of holding the disc for reward money because her insurance won't cover the liposuction she wants. So far, your typical Coen Brothers slapstic. But there's another typical Coen element at play here as well. Like basically the rest of their films, we watch the dim-witted, the unknowing and the innocent get mowed down in this film. There are victims and criminals, but no upstanding, heroic figures. And those with the most heroic qualities are too timid to act on them, thus looking them into the category of the innocent who are mowed down.
This might sound confusing...if it does, you need to have a Coen Brothers DVD marathon. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about. There's something brilliant about these guys that you can laugh your ass off and then be left not with the taste of humor in your mouth but with a dense meloncholy. When you're done with BURN AFTER READING, it feels a little heavier, and maybe a little more significant, than the film started out. I suspect this is going to look like a throwaway film after winning the big Oscar. But while it's not as perfect as that film, it's not a throwaway, either.
3.0 out of 4
But about 45 minutes into the film, you start to notice that BURN AFTER READING is a sibling to "Fargo," and not just because Frances McDormand, a stallwart actress in her husband's films, comes closest to an encore of her "Fargo" performance here.
All of a sudden, the screwball comedy of this film turns on a dime and you find yourself gasping in shock as much as you were laughing before. And then BURN AFTER READING isn't such a trifle, after all. It's as serious as any other Coen Brother film -- comedy or drama.
The plot has been well-publicized. A dim-witted gym employee (a fantastic, dippy Brad Pitt) finds a disc in a locker. He thinks it's filled with "top secret shit"/intelligence of some kind. His co-worker (McDormand) gets excited at his idea of holding the disc for reward money because her insurance won't cover the liposuction she wants. So far, your typical Coen Brothers slapstic. But there's another typical Coen element at play here as well. Like basically the rest of their films, we watch the dim-witted, the unknowing and the innocent get mowed down in this film. There are victims and criminals, but no upstanding, heroic figures. And those with the most heroic qualities are too timid to act on them, thus looking them into the category of the innocent who are mowed down.
This might sound confusing...if it does, you need to have a Coen Brothers DVD marathon. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about. There's something brilliant about these guys that you can laugh your ass off and then be left not with the taste of humor in your mouth but with a dense meloncholy. When you're done with BURN AFTER READING, it feels a little heavier, and maybe a little more significant, than the film started out. I suspect this is going to look like a throwaway film after winning the big Oscar. But while it's not as perfect as that film, it's not a throwaway, either.
3.0 out of 4
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