Thursday 13 December 2012
Joel & Ethan Coen | USA, 2008 | 96 mins | Cert. 15
Burn After Reading finds the Coen brothers treading familiar themes (the inept criminal) and motifs (misunderstandings, buffoonery) but couldn’t be in greater contrast to their previous film, the bloodsoaked, brooding No Country for Old Men.
With a terrific (and for the Coens, decidedly starry) ensemble cast, this tightly wound, slickly plotted farce describes the interconnected exploits of a bunch of dimwitted, money-obsessed narcissists, or as one character would have it “a league of morons”.
A disc containing the “top secret shit” of recently dismissed, mid-level CIA operative Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich at his high-falutin, foul-mouthed best) floats into the hands of two gormless gym employees: plastic surgery-fixated singleton Linda (Frances McDormand) and soft liberal airhead Chad (Brad Pitt). Predictably calamitous attempts at extortion ensue and are further complicated by Linda’s naive involvement with serial adulterer Harry (George Clooney), who also happens to be having an affair with Osbourne’s wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) who, seeking divorce and needing evidence of her husband’s financial status, sets off the whole data-loss episode…