ONE HARSH CRITIC: Burn After Reading

I like the Coen brothers. They've made some of my favorite films. In fact, my wife and I hold an annual festival based solely on one of their cult classics (if you know... you know). I look forward to the day they release a new film, and they rarely disappoint.

Enter Burn After Reading.

It's not bad. Definitely not. It's just not as good as all the Coen Brothers films we've all grown to know and love. It's quirky, as expected. Its non-sensical (that should really be made a word), as expected. It's funny, as expected. But what I didn't expect was the slow patches. Burn After Reading definitely has the potential to bore. Forgive me Coen Brothers... I calls ‘em like I sees ‘em.

Burn After Reading is the story of two gym employees, Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), who find what they believe is highly classified "raw" intelligence. Motivated by adventure and the obsessive need for cosmetic surgery, the duo tries to blackmail Ex-CIA agent Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) for the information.

What the two gym rats really have is Cox's memoir. He can't understand why anyone would steal it. When is wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) is advised to copy personal financial files in preparation for a cut-throat divorce from Osbourne, those files wind up on the disc with the memoirs. Her lover, US Treasury Agent Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) gets involved and chaos ensues.

Each character is over-the-top quirky, as you'd guess from a Coen brother cast of players. But this time, there's little or no reason. Everyone is just weird for the sake of being weird. Its irritating as you have to live with these ticks for two hours to find that none of them help drive the story. Its as though these two film gurus are playing a joke on their fans.

All these characters are so self-indulgent that they fail to see the bigger picture, and that in itself is funny. Everyone chases everyone. The Russians become involved. Inter-agency turmoil mounts and people start killing each other off.

Got it? Its very confusing.

But the ending is priceless. Two monitoring FBI agents (J.K. Simmons, David Rasche) acknowledge the convoluted mess that is the plot of this film. Nothing happens. Nothing is learned. Nothing is lost (except time), and nothing is gained. It's a laughable mess that can be swept under the carpet that is the US Government.

The End.

Its fun, really... It's just a little boring from time to time. Check it out, but with low expectations. Don't believe the hype, and you'll have fun.

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Josh Gloer, Movie Correspondent

You can find Josh's column One Harsh Critic, published every other Sunday. Tuesday, Wednesday... Who can tell at this point? at http://oneharshcritic.gather.com.

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