Film: Burn After Reading
Directed by: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Written by : Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Focus Features
Genre: Comedy/Crime
Runtime: 96 minutes

By: Christofer D’Andrea (Vancouver Correspondent - Canada)

Burn After Reading is a comedy/thriller written and directed by the mastermind duo Joel & Ethan Coen (or simply the Coen Brothers). Known in the film world as the “two-headed director“, they can also be found under the alias Roderick Jaynes which they have often used when sharing editing credits. The brothers write, direct and produce there films jointly, when guild rules disallowed them from co-sharing the director credit due to rights and ownerships issues, the brothers had to become an “established duo” and after doing so became only the third duo to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director, which they in turn ended up winning for No Country For Old Men last year.

‘Burn’ is brilliantly cast, with every character unique in every possible way, Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand, married to Joel Coen) is a middle-aged women who “has gone just about as far as she can go” with her body, and is desperately seeking to have several cosmetic procedures done, only failing to persuade the insurance company into believing it should be covered under her medical. She works at Hardbodies fitness center with her close friend Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), when the two stumble across a disc they think contains “secret C.I.A shit”  they try to entice some money out of it.

Enter Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich), a C.I.A agent recently fired for being an alcoholic, receives a late phone call from two “Morons!!” who claim they found his disk and will return it, but not without some sort of reward, Cox obviously rejects there demands, mostly because the fact is, the disk contains nothing but a few memoirs he was writing for his book. But this wasn’t Cox’s only problem, his soon to be ex-wife Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton) was cheating on him with the sex maniac Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney, third time working with Coen’s), who also ends up with Linda Litzke, whom he met through an internet dating service.

So as you can see, ‘Burn’ can come off as being a bit ridiculous, but it works. The eccentric plot and brilliant acting make ‘Burn’ a fun and enjoyable movie, although the trailer suggests action-packed, you simply get wonderful acting and smart film-making, Brad Pitt does have a smaller role than most of the actors, but he steals every scene in this one, just another winner for the Coen’s, what’s next?