Burn After Reading Movie Review

Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) has everything together, or so he believes, until he is demoted, divorced and discovered to be a wealth of secret information. At least, that is what Linda (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt) believe when they stumbled upon a CD filled with Osborne's financials. Believing that they have highly classified CIA information and not the financial report Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton) pulled for her divorce lawyer, Linda and Chad embark in a game of blackmail and espionage, of which they are incredibly inept to play.

Somewhere, the Russians, plastic surgery, Internet dating and George Clooney fit into the whole scenario.

Sounds like a whole lot of nothing? Well it is, and that is the beauty of the Coen Brothers' movie. The film is based solely on the notion that everyone has something, which in reality is nothing. Osborne believes that Linda and Chad have a copy of his memoirs, not the financials his soon-to-be ex-wife pulled. Linda and Chad believe they have information that the Russians want. George Clooney's character, Harry Pfarrer, believes there are spies out to get him, and not private investigators for his soon-to-be ex-wife's divorce lawyer. Meanwhile, Harry is having an affair with Katie and Linda, as well as multiple other women on an Internet dating site. Katie believes Harry will marry her once the divorce is final. Linda believes that plastic surgery will reinvent herself. Chad believes in physical fitness and smacking gum.

If you can get over the somewhat slow pace of the film, the idiocy of the characters is worth watching. Yet the humor within the film is one of irony and intellect. Don't expect gut-busting moments. They just aren't there, but then again, the Coen Brothers are not known for their overt humor. It's humor with levels.

While it is not the best work of all involved, Pitt does steal the show as Chad the personal trainer, who is completely oblivious to the world around him and moronic just the same. When he is on screen, no one else seems to matter. Not even George Clooney, who usually holds his own in comedies.

It is not as strong a movie as Fargo or No Country for Old Men, but as a farce of modern day espionage and blackmail, Coen Brothers offer a fantastical look into little fish in a big pond.

On DVD

Hannibal Rising

Directed by: Peter Webber

Written by: Thomas Harris

Starring: Gaspard Ulliel and Helena-Lia Tachovská

Rated: R

Hannibal Rising takes a look into the devious and downright evil Dr. Hannibal Lector's childhood to expose what it was exactly that was eating him alive. Hannibal (Gaspard Ulliel) is orphaned with his sister Mischa (Helena-Lia Tachovská) during World War II, when bombs killed his family and destroyed his home. Found by a bunch of fiends who were rejected by the SS, Hannibal watches as the soldiers decide to sustain their own lives through the deliciousness of the children.

Yes, they eat Mischa, which in turn, prompts Hannibal, who escaped the butchery, to revenge his sister's murder. He pays the evilness in kind by butchering each of them.

The movie effectively destroys everything that was built up with Silence of the Lambs. Lector's childhood and affinity for cannibalism does not need to be explored, and actually demeans everything that Anthony Hopkins made viciously horrible and obsessively addictive about the character. It is simply a grotesque prequel which should have remained locked away with Hannibal himself.

This week's classic movie selection

The Quiet Man

Written by: Frank S. Nugent

Directed by: John Ford

Starring: John Wayne, and Maureen O'Hara

Rated: NR

Sean Thornton (John Wayne) returns to his ancestrial home in Ireland to hide from his past and start a new future. Then he sees a vision gliding across the meadow with sparkling red hair. Mary Kate Danaher ((Maureen O'Hara) is a ultra traditional Irish Catholic girl who believes in the proper Irish traditions of courting, something American Thornton is not used to. What ensues is a town gone mad with cupid's trickery, as everyone in the tiny village of Innisfree has bets on the couple and is in on the matchmaking.

Beautifully shot in County Mayo and Galway, Ireland, The Quiet Man is one of John Ford's classics, despite being written off as a silly Irish tale. Wayne and O'Hara dazzle in this tale of love and tradition.

Burn After Reading

Written and Directed by: Ethan and Joel Coen

Starring: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Brad Pitt

Rated: R