MOVIE REVIEW - "BURN AFTER READING"
The Coen Brothers have tried, again, to make another comedy. On the heels of "Ladykillers" and "Intolerable Cruelty," this one almost seems funny. Almost.
Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is a foul-mouthed CIA analyst who gets demoted because of his drinking problem. He decides to quit the Agency and write his tell-all memoirs, much to the chagrin of wife Katie (Tilda Swinton). Katie, who's carrying on an affair with Treaury agent Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), decides to get a divorce and tries to make a copy of his financial statement for her lawyer. Instead, she ends up making a CD of Osborne's memoirs, and promptly forgets in in the changing room of a local fitness center called "Hardbodies." Two fitness instructors, Linda (Francis McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt) find the disk, mistake it for high-level government secrets and decide to blackmail Osborne for huge reward.
The cast is almost uniformly good - Pitt as the bouncy airhead fitness trainer, Malkovich as the disgruntled ex-spook, and Swinton always manages to look icy and evil (a la "Chronicles of Narnia" and "Michael Clayton"). Surprisingly, it's Clooney and McDormand, ordinarily the two solid anchors, whose characters seem to fall flat with over-the-top but uninspired acting.
Rated R for some pretty raw language (Malkovich drops F-bombs in practically every other sentence) and a couple of brutally violent scenes, "Burn After Reading" leaves you with a feeling of "What the hell just happened?". While it may please die-hard fans of the Coen's caustic, dark brand of comedy, "Burn" is ultimately a funny concept, an amazing cast and a so-so movie.
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