2/5
Burn After Reading is a quirky comedy by the Coen Brothers, but it does not do the Coen name justice. After the amazing No Country for Old Men, and of course Fargo, I expect a lot more from the brothers.
The film is about CIA analyst Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) who is fired and decides to write his life's memoirs. His wife (Tilda Swanson) is sleeping with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a happily married man. Harry is also dating a few other women, including Linda Litzki (Frances McDormand). Linda works at a gym with Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt). Chad finds a disk in the gym with Cox's CIA files. Chad and Linda decide to blackmail Cox so that Linda can get money for plastic surgery. Of course the whole plan goes wrong.
Brad Pitt is the best part of this movie. He is perfect for the goofy fitness freak Chad. You wouldn't expect Pitt to fit so fell into the role, but he does it brilliantly and I wonder why we haven't seen him in more quirky roles. The other characters are fine. George Clooney is good, so is Malkovich. Frances McDormand is also good. She's a great actress and she displays a lot of promise in other films. There was nothing wrong with the acting, or the directing for that matter, it just wasn't that great a movie.
I think the main problem is the story. It raps up to fast and the movie is very short. I don't know how the story could continue, but it just didn't seem complete to me. Some people might like this movie, and there are some very funny scenes. The problem is that the funniest people are restricted to only a few scenes and the serious parts of this movie don't really work. It's okay, but I would not recommend Burn After Reading whether you're looking for a comedy or a thriller as it doesn't fulfill either genre to a satisfactory level.
Burn After Reading is a quirky comedy by the Coen Brothers, but it does not do the Coen name justice. After the amazing No Country for Old Men, and of course Fargo, I expect a lot more from the brothers.
The film is about CIA analyst Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) who is fired and decides to write his life's memoirs. His wife (Tilda Swanson) is sleeping with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a happily married man. Harry is also dating a few other women, including Linda Litzki (Frances McDormand). Linda works at a gym with Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt). Chad finds a disk in the gym with Cox's CIA files. Chad and Linda decide to blackmail Cox so that Linda can get money for plastic surgery. Of course the whole plan goes wrong.
Brad Pitt is the best part of this movie. He is perfect for the goofy fitness freak Chad. You wouldn't expect Pitt to fit so fell into the role, but he does it brilliantly and I wonder why we haven't seen him in more quirky roles. The other characters are fine. George Clooney is good, so is Malkovich. Frances McDormand is also good. She's a great actress and she displays a lot of promise in other films. There was nothing wrong with the acting, or the directing for that matter, it just wasn't that great a movie.
I think the main problem is the story. It raps up to fast and the movie is very short. I don't know how the story could continue, but it just didn't seem complete to me. Some people might like this movie, and there are some very funny scenes. The problem is that the funniest people are restricted to only a few scenes and the serious parts of this movie don't really work. It's okay, but I would not recommend Burn After Reading whether you're looking for a comedy or a thriller as it doesn't fulfill either genre to a satisfactory level.