Stupid People

Burn After Reading

No time off for good behavior.

Only seven months after winning three Oscars, including a Best Picture award for their melancholy western-nouveau “No Country for Old Men,” Joel and Ethan Coen have released another movie. It’s “Burn After Reading,” a comedy about intelligence, or the lack thereof.

“Burn After Reading” is the story of a group of unlikable people whose lives become intertwined when a compact disc containing sensitive information is lost by one party and discovered by another. The players include disgruntled CIA analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), womanizer Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), insecure fitness instructor Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and her fellow employee and moron Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt).

When Linda and Chad find the lost disc on the floor of their gym, Hardbodies, they concoct a hair-brained, almost moronic, scheme to blackmail its owner, Osborne. Into the mix come Osborne’s cold, humorless wife (Tilda Swinton), her secret lover Harry, and a host of confused CIA officers, who are bewildered at the nonsensical goings on.

The disc itself is little more than a McGuffin, and has no intrinsic value, but it serves to push the film’s characters back and forth and into some wildly funny scenarios.

Take, for example, a sequence in which an ill-prepared Chad attempts to blackmail Osborne. He arrives at the designated spot on bicycle (in a suit) and stumbles through his obviously rehearsed lines, including a hysterical “appearances can be…deceptive.”

There’s blackmail, there’s sex, there’s murder, but all of it is framed in a darkly humorous way, as only the Coen brothers can do.

All of the actors in “Burn After Reading” appear to having the time of their lives, especially Clooney, who mugs for the camera throughout the movie. Supporting actors turn in amusing performances as well, including Richard Jenkins and J.K. Simmons.

What is so remarkable is that the Coens were able to turn out “Burn After Reading” only one year after “No Country for Old Men.” In fact, the brothers wrote both screenplays at the same time, alternating every other day for each script.

The next Coen brothers’ movie, “A Serious Man,” will be released next year. It’s another black comedy, like “Burn After Reading” and like so many of their previous works, including “Raising Arizona” and “Fargo.” Joel and Ethan Coen have a brilliant understanding of the line which separates funny from unfunny and a knack for infusing one with the other.

*** out of ****

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