Today’s quick review: Burn After Reading. John Malkovich plays Osborne Cox, a low-level CIA agent with an inflated sense of worth and a drinking problem. His forced retirement prompts him to write his tell-all memoirs, which fall into the hands of his cheating wife Katie (Tilda Swinton), who is planning her divorce. By chance, the memoirs end up in a gym locker room, where they are found by two gym employees, Linda (Frances McDormand), a middle-aged woman who is insecure about her aging body, and Chad (Brad Pitt), her young and clueless coworker. The two attempt to return the memoirs to Osborne, but the phone conversation goes awry and their act of kindness turn into blackmail. Meanwhile, Linda begins to date Harry (George Clooney), a charming philanderer who is cheating on his own wife with both Linda and Katie. The plot grows more and more complicated as Chad and Linda ineptly try to get rich off of the worthless memoirs, believing the intelligence in them to be top secret.
Despite a strong cast and an interesting setup, Burn After Reading does not quite click the way other Coen Brothers films do. The tone changes jarringly between the early and late parts of the movie, abruptly switching from a low-stakes comedy to a black comedy in a burst of violence. The Coen Brothers’ trademark sense of humor works just as well in both flavors of comedy, but the mixture of the two violates the promise of the early movie and prevents Burn After Reading from standing out in either genre. Those who are less affected by the transition may find the film to be more in line with the Coen Brothers’ other works.
The characters are one of the strong points of the film and the source of much of its humor. The characters are given interesting flaws and good reasons to interact with one another. However, the cast as a whole is missing the heart found in the casts of other Coen Brothers films. There is no Marge Gunderson investigating violent crime in small-town Minnesota between quiet evenings with her beloved husband. There is no Ulysses Everett McGill prevaricating his way to a prize worth more to him than all the many trials along the way. There are only shallow, self-interested players without the virtues or good sense needed to escape the trouble their flaws led them into.
Burn After Reading is a quirky comedy with a star-studded cast and an entertaining plot that ultimately does not live up to its potential. The abrupt shift in tone coupled with the lack of a sympathetic character to act as a palate cleanser make this one of the Coen Brothers’ weaker comedies. The movie does have its high points—most notably a handful of marvelous scenes with J.K. Simmons as a CIA officer monitoring the “crisis” as it develops—but isn’t as satisfying as it could have been. Those who are drawn to the high-quality cast, offbeat sense of humor, and well-written plot should give the movie a watch in spite of its flaws. Anyone else should steer clear in favor of other Coen Brothers comedies, like Fargo or O Brother, Where Art Thou?, or other ensemble comedies, like Ocean’s Eleven. 7.0 out of 10 on IMDB.