(2008) 3.5 Perry Seibert The opening shot of the Coen Brothers' new black comedy Burn After Reading takes the viewer from outer space to inside CIA headquarters. The last shot takes us out of that building, back up into space. This device makes it clear that Joel and Ethan are playing God. They have devised a shaggy dog tale where almost every single person acts only in their own self-interest, and nobody gets away unscathed. It's the darkest comedy they've made since Barton Fink, and it might be mistaken for a work of genuine misanthropy if it wasn't so funny. The complicated -- but never confusing -- plot begins when CIA agent Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) learns from his boss that he is being demoted. Cox quits in a fit of pique, all the while throwing F-bombs around with comfort and authority -- like a Princeton-educated Scorsese gangster. The language, as well as the fact that characters are always saying Osborne's last name, make it clear that right from the beginning that vulgarity is one of the movie's major themes. Upon learning of his unemployment, Cox's wife (Tilda Swinton) hires a lawyer to begin divorce proceedings, a move that eventually leads to a lost CD that may contain sensitive state secrets. That information comes into the hands of Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), a middle-aged woman who needs lots of money in order to reinvent herself with massive amounts of plastic surgery; and her dim best friend, Chad, played with wonderful comic timing by Brad Pitt. Chad swears just as often as Cox does, but for very different reasons. Where Cox's profanity reveals his boundless sense of superiority, Chad simply knows no better way to express himself. When Chad meets face to face with Cox to blackmail him, it's a hilarious clash between an idiot and an a-hole. It would be unfair to reveal how inveterate womanizer Harry (George Clooney) -- and his newest invention -- figure into the plot, because watching this story unfold is so much fun. The movie is written like a screwball comedy, but it's paced like a drama. When audiences might expect the film to build a head of steam like the last half-hour of Raising Arizona, the Coen Brothers refuse to play along. It would appear that they are interested in something more than a straightforward comedy; all of the characters are morally ugly, a fact underscored by the movie's anti-glamorous look -- there is a prominent lack of makeup on just about everybody. The film is populated with realistic grotesques whose selfish, vulgar actions have ramifications that extend far beyond their myopic self-interest. The movie works as a silly R-rated comedy to be sure, but it does have the kick of an adult Grimm Brothers fairy tale with a moral about what awaits those who behave very badly. In its own way, Burn After Reading is as despairing a film about human beings as No Country for Old Men, it just happens to be full of belly laughs rather than existential angst.

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Burn After Reading (2008)

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Burn After Reading

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Profanity
Sexual Situations
Violence

genres

Comedy

sub-genres

category

Feature

directed by

countries

USA

release date

September 12, 2008 (USA)

run time

95 min.

produced by

Focus Features, Working Title Films

released by

Focus Features, Relativity Media, Studiocanal

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Art Directors Guild

Nominated

Best Art Direction in a Contemporary Film

2008

British Academy of Film and Television Arts

Nominated	Best Original Screenplay Joel Coen, Ethan Coen	2008
Nominated	Best Supporting Actor Brad Pitt	2008
Nominated	Best Supporting Actress Tilda Swinton	2008

Broadcast Film Critics Association

Nominated

Best Comedy Movie

2008

Detroit Film Critics Society

Nominated

Best Ensemble

2008

Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Nominated	Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy Frances McDormand	2008
Nominated	Best Picture - Musical or Comedy	2008

National Board of Review

Nominated

Best Picture

2008

St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association

Won

Best Comedy

2008

Toronto International Film Festival

Presented

Film Presented

2008

Utah Film Critics

Nominated

Best Supporting Actress

Frances McDormand

2008

Venice International Film Festival

Presented

Film Presented

2008

Writers Guild of America

Nominated

Best Original Screenplay

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

2008