Uncontrollable 'Burn'

By Joshua Snyder
West Times Staff

The filmmaker duo Joel and Ethan Coen are at it again.

Since their first film, the Coens’ success has been a thrilling roller-coaster ride of outstanding successes and mediocre flicks. Their mastery of the thriller genre has proven a keystone of their career, with movies like Fargo and No Country For Old Men garnering high praise and Academy Awards, mixing into that tension just the right amount of subtle humor. The pair’s outrageous comedies, however, have been considerably more hit-and-miss.

Burn After Reading follows the story of several important (and not so important) figures in the nation’s capital, Washington D.C.

There’s a pretty large main cast this time around, making it a little difficult to keep characters straight at the beginning. First, there’s John Malkovich, who plays disgruntled, drunk CIA analyst Osborne Cox, who’s just been demoted and is writing his memoirs. His frosty, unfeeling wife, Kathie (Tilda Swinton) steals Ozzie’s budget and financial information. Because she finds herself much happier in the arms of womanizing bodyguard Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), she takes it to her divorce lawyers, who then proceed to lose it at “Hardbodies,” a local gym. When the gym’s employees discover the disk of info, Chad Feldheimer and Linda Litzke (played by Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand respectively) uncover Osborne Cox’s name and phone number, and hold his disk for ransom. Phew. Did you get all that?

So what are we supposed to think of a Coen movie that’s both explicitly a comedy and thriller? Burn is a very, very funny movie that draws from the duo’s signature black humor on a level that hasn’t been seen from them since O Brother, Where Art Thou? All of the actors give hilariously over-the-top performances that nevertheless retain the subtle touches audiences love.

Brad Pitt’s performance as the dopey but otherwise good-natured Chad is fantastically against type, which makes it all the more entertaining. Frances McDormand is her typical quirky self, maintaining a relatively low-key personality while somehow managing to appear larger than life. This is certainly not a bad thing, as she brings life to an awkward, self-absorbed woman willing to do anything to afford a little plastic surgery. She and Pitt play off of each other perfectly.

John Malkovich is excellent as the obscene, wrathful CIA man who absolutely hates “morons,” including in that category just about everyone who isn’t him.

The plot is absolutely outrageous, making for an excitingly fun ride, but it also proves to be one of Burn’s major issues. There are so many characters doing so many different things that it’s often difficult to keep track of everyone’s motives and desires. It sometimes feels as if there’s just too much going on.

Also, while the actors play their characters with hilarious gusto, the novelty begins to wear away after about the first hour. Neither problem, however, takes enough from the movie to hurt its entertainment-value.