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.

Step Brothers

All right, I admit it: I laughed, and I laughed a lot.

Nothing like watching two 13-year old boys in the bodies of men, 39 and 40, still living with their respective parents, doing nothing but watching TV and masturbating - sort of a Bevis and Butthead all over again.

The accompanying picture says it all: Mom and Dad wonderfully happy; the boys, bewildered, suspicious, and angry.

Raunchy for sure ... as 13-year old boys are, but it's not about raunch, but growing up, and how hard it can be these days. Sociologically, the film represents a developmental phenomenon: prolonged adolescence. Single adults well into their 30s behaving adolescently.

Both "boys" live with their respective parents - decent, hard-working folks, amazed at their immature sons, frustrated but loving. I think it's the love of these parents that stands at the emotional center of the story. How does a parent love? And how to motivate and guide a child?

It's also about blended families - the stresses and strains of getting a new household up and running - the absolute power of blood, and the hard decisions parents have to sometimes make.

After falling in love (yes, boys and girls, your parents can still fall in love again), the task of building a new household begins. The boys are resentful and competitive - hating each other, setting limits ("you touch my drums, you die"), yet in time, they bond together by their mutual dislike of the situation, discovering a great deal in common.

Ultimately, the boys sabotage the marriage. It happens - though Mom and Dad love one another, the bond of blood prevails.

Will Ferrell and John C. Riley (with that incredible nose-bridge crease) are a great team, playing off one another's energy. Their respective parents, Richard Jenkins (most recently seen in the brilliant The Visitor) and Mary Steenburgen, bring a terrific sense of real parenting to the story. Jenkins is "every man" in his acting. Certainly no "leading man," his character is a common story - working hard every day to make sense of life, to provide for those he loves, trying to add some flair to an otherwise common life. Steenburgen, wonderfully hot, is remarkable - she loves her son, wants a home, and makes hard decisions with tearful grace.

Both Ferrell and Riley offer up two personae - that of the immature adult and then an adult with promise - the transformation of voicing and physical movement is great to see. I wonder if we'll see either of them in a dramatic role any time soon - both are capable of such, I'm convinced.

The end is oddly funny - not sure it's the best ending, but it gets the point across. Even as adults, we remember the schmucks who beat us up, and who wouldn't want to land on the play ground in a powerful corporate helicopter and beat 'em all up.

Entertaining for sure - I'd say this is a movie (the word "film" seems a bit out of place on this one) worth seeing. So buy a popcorn and get a Coke, and be prepared to laugh.

The Visitor

A remarkable story ... a college professor recently widowed, with a career no longer exciting, drifting through life, going through piano teachers in an effort to learn the piano, but to no avail, suddenly thrust into a drama of incredible proportions.

Played by Richard Jenkins, perfectly cast for the role, the story unfolds so unexpectedly, as does Professor Walter Vale's heart. A cool, detached man - not really heartless, but with terribly low blood pressure, if you will, teaching the same course for years in a Connecticut college, now in New York City for a conference to read a paper he didn't write. When he opens the door to his city apartment - where he's not been in months, it's apparent someone is living there, and that's the beginning of a new chapter in his life.

Even as I write these words, they might suggest some kind of a fairy tale, but no fairy tale here, just the reality of lives unexpectedly intertwined, with subtle political commentary: after 911, this country has become a cruel place for immigrants, illegal or otherwise. The mother of a young man in detention headed for deportation says, "This is just like Syria." What with our Guantanamo Bay and acceptance of torture, we have lost our bearings. I still believe that America has reservoirs of goodness and greatness, but like reservoirs in Georgia, without replenishment, the levels are dropping.

This is a tale of woe - a poignant reminder that everyone is a person, and many of the so-called "illegals" are caught up in economic and/or political currents from which they're seeking escape. On a Staten Island Ferry ride, with the Statue of Liberty in the background, the film reminds without being preachy that our greatness is to be found in acceptance and openness.

As I watched the story unfold, I kept asking myself, "How can this nation recover its balance?"

After 911, we responded, neither with dignity nor wisdom befitting a great nation but with the craven and fearful posturing of a nation without integrity, a feigned greatness created by millitary prowess rather than political wisdom. Bush and Gang played the fear card again and again, trumping every hand played by anyone else. And too many Americans bought into it, too many who love their "way of life," and will destroy anything and anyone who seemingly poses a threat, forgetting that we're all in this together, seduced by the bump and grind of war.

It's a powerful story, well acted for all.

Danai Jekesai Gurira, Hiam Abbass, and Haaz Sleiman give stellar performances.

I loved the photography (Oliver Bokelberg), and hats off to the editor (Tom McArdle).

The film ends as it should - not happily, but folks making the best of a hard time. The professor and the boy's mother say farewell in the airport, she on her way back to Syria to be with her son, he goes to the subway with his drum (you'll have to see the film to learn how a staid professor becomes a drummer), and there in the subway, begins to drum, something the young man, now deported, always wanted to do.

Life goes on, both richer and poorer for love experienced, love given, and love lost.

Humorous without being comedic, poignant without being syrupy, political without being preachy, this is an extraordinary film.

For a fine review, see the June 3 Christian Century.