Binding:
Blu-ray
Brand:
UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
EAN:
0025195049085
Label:
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Manufacturer:
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Model:
VF62105851
Size:
Warranty:
After the dark brilliance of
No Country for Old Men,
Burn After Reading may seem like a trifle, but few filmmakers elevate the trivial to art quite like Joel and Ethan Coen. Inspired by Stansfield Turner's
Burn Before Reading, the comically convoluted plot clicks into gear when the CIA gives analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) the boot. Little does Cox know his wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton, riffing on her
Michael Clayton character), is seeing married federal marshal Harry (George Clooney, Swinton's
Clayton co-star, playing off his
Syriana role). To get back at the Agency, Cox works on his memoirs. Through a twist of fate, fitness club workers Linda (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt in a pompadour that recalls
Johnny Suede) find the disc and try to wrangle a "Samaratin tax" out of the surly alcoholic. An avid Internet dater, Linda plans to use the money for plastic surgery, oblivious that her manager, Ted (
The Visitor's Richard Jenkins), likes her just the way she is. Though it sounds like a Beltway remake of
The Big Lebowski, the Coen entry it most closely resembles, this time the brothers concentrate their energies on the myriad insecurities endemic to the mid-life crisis--with the exception of Chad, who's too dense to share such concerns, leading to the funniest performance of Pitt's career. If
Lebowski represented the Coen's unique approach to film noir,
Burn sees them putting their irresistibly absurdist stamp on paranoid thrillers from
Enemy of the State to
The Bourne Identity.
--Kathleen C. FennessyStills from Burn After Reading (Click for larger image)