Review - Burn After Reading
by Jack Abell
jackabell@trinitysouth.co.uk
BURN AFTER READING (15)
Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton
Run time: 96 minutes
A LOT of film critics seem to be a tad confused by Burn After Reading, the latest effort from the much-acclaimed and recently Oscar-winning Coen Brothers.
The first film from the pair since the dark and gloomy No Country For Old Men cleaned up at this year's Academy Awards, Burn After Reading is a much lighter affair, more typical of previous Coen efforts such as the Big Lebowski and Fargo.
This dramatic switch in tone seems to have wrong-footed a lot of critics, who have almost universally sat on the fence, suggesting that the film is somewhere between Mediocre and Quite Good on their scale of reviewing. No one seems to know exactly what to make of it.
Here, then, is the news: It's brilliant. Quite simply, Burn After Reading is the most quirky, unique and original film to come out of Hollywood in years. It's brilliance lies in the fact that it is so hard to categorise. Is it a thriller? Sort of but it's too funny to fall into that genre. A comedy? It's certainly amusing but too violent to be classed as truly comedic. A drama then? It's too far-fetched to be classed as dramatic.
The film is really in a class of its own, a sort of thriller-cum-comedy-cum-drama that never lets up the pace and, at just 93 minutes long, never over stays its welcome.
Telling the story of an ex-CIA man (Malkovich) whose memoirs fall in to the hands of two idiots (McDormand and Pitt) and the lives that are affected along the way as a series of misunderstandings occur, Burn After Reading features some of the funniest performances from established dramatic actors in some time.
Chief among these are Pitt and Clooney who both show an admirable disregard for their screen personas. Pitt, in particular, is excellent as an airhead gym instructor who is convinced that by finding the memoirs he has stumbled across a major international conspiracy.
Add to that Frances McDormand as a middle aged woman desperate for plastic surgery, and John Malkovich as the CIA man with borderline psychosis, and you have a truly great ensemble cast all operating at the top of their games.
Over the course of its short running time, the film will make you laugh out loud, shock you with its twists and finally leave you with a warm feeling as you exit the cinema realising you have just seen the most strikingly original American film in years.
Verdict: 5/5
See the trailer here:
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I have to agree, one of the best films I've seen of late. I didn't know what to expect with this film, it's really quirky but a definite must see!