Burn After Reading Review

Burn After Reading is a character driven tale of failed spies, morons and the misunderstood. Burn After Reading is a slow start but picks up momentum with a strong head of comedic steam.

Chad (Brad Pitt) is a good natured knuckleheaded enthusiastic personal trainer. Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) is a lying, cheating married man who sweet-talks endless numbers of women. Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is a disgruntled CIA analyst in a failing marriage. Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) is an employee at a gym who is consumed by her own vanity and need for cosmetic surgery for her personal reinvention. Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton) is a cold, distant and uncaring doctor. One CD with top secret information drives these characters together in a complex adventure of deceit and blackmail.

Burn After Reading's beginning is so slow, it nearly crosses into the unbearably dull. All of the characters are seem out of place, often with almost slapstick behaviors (do I hear a slide whistle?), in the pedestrian situations of the beginning. For the first forty-five minutes, each plot point required almost unmusterable levels of effort to make work and for the audience to believe. Brad Pitt's ridiculous, flailing enthusiasm saves the Burn After Reading's beginning from being a total snooze.

As it progresses, Burn After Reading's plot picks up, offering the audience a reward for their patience, true comedy and brilliant writing. Burn After Reading requires the audience to pay attention at all times to understand the satisfyingly complex plot. Writers Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, created a rabble of self-absorbed, bumbling morons.

Burn After Reading is entirely driven by the characters. The characters' lives become intertwined and inseparable. There is not one aspect of the plot that is not caused directly by the characters. They are often propelled by their own misunderstanding, stupidity and misconceptions. Their decisions are brightly colored by their own foolishness, misgivings, mischief and treachery. If pressure was exerted on one character, the rest felt the squish. If one character thought there was pressure but there was none, they all got squished anyways. Misunderstandings often become truth; truths step aside and allow misunderstandings to take root.

In the beginning, the exaggerated nature of the characters' personalities makes no sense but as Burn After Reading progresses, their idiosyncrasies begin to make more sense. All of the actors do a great job of making this bazaar bunch of characters seem plausible. George Clooney makes Harry's hyper-sexual nature funny, not sad or creepy. Chad is muy cuddleable because Brad Pittimparts in him a sweet can-do presence. Linda is tolerable because Frances McDormand makes her just a little bit sad, not just vain or greedy. Tilda Swinton commits fully to making Katie a chilly ball breaker. John Malkovich gives Osborne Cox a pathetic undertone while still making his outbursts of anger both humorous and appropriate. Purple triangle, debuting in Burn After Reading, is a great example of a character with no lines being able to steal the show through laughter.

Directors Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, made a lot of great cinematography decisions make Burn After Reading feel like a spy movie. The CIA office and other official espionage offices are sterile looking. There are a few, well placed, scenes of scuttling feet, clink clanking quickly to their destination.

A bit of patience pays off for the viewers of Burn After Reading. Strong acting, fantastic writing and crisp visuals make Burn After Reading worth a bit of getting-to-know-you time.