Burn After Reading

A very good film ... lots of ironic laughs ... subtle and rather dark as it unfolds, brought to us by Cohen Brothers (Ethan & Joel). Some critics have panned it, saying that it "fails to ignite" - hardly! If you're looking for out-and-out slap-stick, go to "Step Brothers."

"Burn After Reading" actually takes you places and gives you something to think about even as it provides plenty of laughs. Perhaps it requires a level of thought or sophistication to appreciate the skillful manner in which the story is told and the characters revealed. All right?

This is a story of bumbling people bumbling their way through love and life (do we every really do any differently) - managing to do some serious damage along the way. If the film has message, it's likely this: play with fire, ya' get burned, and burned badly!

An all-star cast wonderfully restrained and comically intense.

Brad Pitt is terrific as a gum-chewing, not-too-bright, slightly whatever, physical trainer (Chad Feldheimer) who cooks up a scheme to extort money from a CIA analyst after he discovers on the gym's locker room floor a CD with apparently valuable information.

Francis McDormand is terrfic as "Linda Litzke" (echos of her Fargo twang) who wants to meet a man and finally decides she needs some physical enhancements. The only problem being: her insurance won't pay for for the surgeries. So when "Chad" shows her the CD, she's in.

Richard Jenkins (gym manager, Ted Treffon) portrays wonderfully the wounded soul who so badly wants to date Linda who "shuts him out all the time." Ultimately, after Chad disappears, Linda gets Ted to sign-on to steal more information from the CIA analyst.

The CIA analyst is played wonderfully by slightly loony John Malkovich who's wife, "Katie" (Tilda Swinton) is having an affair with George Clooney - "Harry Pfarrer."

"Katie finally decides to seek a divorce so she and Harry can get married, but Harry's not so sure now. In an effort to secure her husband's financial records, Katie burns a CD, which her attorney's secretary leaves in the gym - see above.

Clooney, by the way, is terrific - the slightly simple gun-totin' playboy, with some remnants of a conscience left, profoundly paranoid - he's right - and in one fine explosive scene near the end, he bolts from the park bench where he and Linda have become a number (they met on an internet dating service), exclaiming, "Who are you? Who do you work for?" when he discovers that Chad, the guy she's looking for, and he, with his "connections," is helping, learns that he disappeared at Katie's house. In his mind, it's all some horrible CIA plot, and he's smack dab in the middle of it.

Are we complicated enough yet?

After the shooting and the ax murder are done and the bodies disposed of, two CIA officers are discussing the case - a great scene of CIA a operative (David Rasche) hesitantly reporting delicate matters to a blunt, only-the-facts, superior (J.K. Simmons).
"Well, what did we learn?"
"Not to do it again."
"If only we knew what we did."

In the end, so to speak, Linda gets her operation.
And Harry is on his way to Venezuela "because we don't have an extradition agreement with them."

A lot of good laughs, some terrific acting - worth seeing, that's for sure.