TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Coens Have Laughs To Burn

ADVERTISEMENT

By CHRISTY LEMIRE

The Associated Press

Published: September 11, 2008

Updated:

It's a total goof, of course. A lark, a one-off.

"Burn After Reading," the latest offering in the eclectic filmography of Joel and Ethan Coen, is not to be taken seriously - one look at Brad Pitt's blond-streaked pouf of hair tells you that - and it's certainly not to be compared to their starkly violent Academy Award winner from last year, "No Country for Old Men."

Having said that, it is by no means a letdown as a follow-up. With its rat-a-tat dialogue and delusional characters, "Burn After Reading" falls more like the brothers' cult-favorite comedies such as "Raising Arizona" and "The Big Lebowski," and it lacks the desperation of their back-to-back duds, "Intolerable Cruelty" and "The Ladykillers."

We are no longer in "No Country," but we are assuredly in Coen Country.

This time, the filmmakers take their eye for regional detail to Washington for what looks like an espionage thriller, except that the spying uncovers no significant information, everybody is clueless and no one is ever truly in danger.

The writing-directing brothers seem to have a genuine affection and sympathy for the idiots they've concocted and do not treat their characters with condescension, which they at times have been accused of doing. Meanwhile, the A-list actors are clearly having a blast.

John Malkovich, as fired CIA analyst Osborne Cox, whose memoir falls into the wrong hands, is a hilarious marvel of precise, percolating rage.

The Coens' old pal George Clooney is almost as much of a buffoon here as he was in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Naturally, Frances McDormand is uniquely tuned in to the Coens' rhythms, being one of their frequent stars - not to mention, Joel's wife.

But Pitt steals every scene in which he appears - and nearly walks away with the whole movie - as an overgrown child of a gym trainer whose bungled schemes get him in way over his head.

Just his name alone, Chad Feldheimer, makes him sound like a first-class doofus.

But Pitt brings an innocence to the role that makes him irresistible rather than obnoxious; it's easy to forget that he can be funny, the shadow of superstardom and serious roles in films such as "Fight Club" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" looming so large.

Here, he toys with his pretty-boy looks and it pays off big time.

The Coens let the pacing sag from time to time in the movie's middle, even as the plot thickens and the schemes grow more complex - at least as far as the characters are concerned. They're all so busy trying to be someone they're not, to be smart, sophisticated, somehow better, that their connection with reality is tenuous at best.

J.K. Simmons, who has only a couple of scenes as a CIA official, but they're memorable, puts it best when he says dryly to Osborne's boss: "Report back to me when ... I don't know. When it makes sense."

Sure thing. Good luck with all that.

MOVIE REVIEW

Burn After Reading ***

MOVIE BOARD RATING: R; pervasive profanity, some sexual content and violence

STARS: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich and J.K. Simmons

DIRECTORS: Joel and Ethan Coen

LOCATION: See Movie Times, Page 9, for local showtimes.

PLOT SUMMARY: Memoirs of a CIA agent end up in the hands of unscrupulous gym employees.

RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes

ON THE WEB: www.burnafter reading.com

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT