An Exercise in Stupidity

Day 3 and still going strong (I feel like I'm in a prescription medicine commercial). Last night's film was Burn After Reading, the latest film from the Coen brothers. To call a film like this odd, would seem like a negative critique unless you are the Coens. It is amazing how these two continue to produce such diverse and quirky films and be successful at it. If you didn't know any better it would be hard to tell that this movie was made by the same people who did No Country For Old Men.

While the Coens' quirkiness has prevented me from seeing some of their work (I'll probably get stoned for saying this, but I've never seen The Big Lebowski), I found this one to be much more accessible, thanks in part to the all-star cast. Aside from headliners like George Clooney and Brad Pitt, the film boasts an amazing lineup of great character actors including Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, JK Simmons, Richard Jenkins, and David Rasche. All of them are wonderful here.

What is particularly fun to watch in all of these performances is how spectacularly stupid each character is. In a lot films, dumb characters can become real annoying. You sit their frustrated, watching them do one stupid move after the next. But in this case, it's actually pretty exciting. You know that their stupidity is eventually going to cost them, but you don't know exactly how and therein lies the fun. It's also fun to see so many of these great actors play against type to be so stupid. Each one seems to relish in this game of 'can you top that' idiocy?

As good as everyone is, I must single out Brad Pitt. He often gets dismissed as an actor because of his celebrity status, but he is really great in this film. He is the dim bulb who shines the brightest. He steals every scene he is in and I wish he would have been in the film more. Seeing his performance here, makes me all the more interested to see what he'll do next month in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

I'll try my best to explain the film's plot if you're not familiar with what it is about, but it is somewhat complicated. Pitt and McDormand are employees at a local Washington DC gym and happen to find a disc that potentially has government secrets belonging to Osbourne Cox (Malkovich), a CIA agent who recently quit/was fired. Malkovich is married to Tilda Swinton, who's having an affair with Clooney. As the film progresses the lives of these five people become intertwined as they stumble through life trying to get ahead. There's a lot more to that, but that's the basic gist.

I found the film was a bit slow early on. I give them credit for trying to establish these characters. But because the film is only 96 minutes long, that early character development short changes the rest of the action once the film's plot really kicks into high gear. The early parts aren't boring, just a bit frustrating because you're anxious to see where everything goes.

At times, the story may seem inconsequential. However, any concerns about that are allieviated in the final scene of the film. The scenes provides the perfect coda for everything that has happened in the film and it's damn funny to boot. It's interesting how both this and No Country For Old Men end with a scene of dialogue when you would expect something more action-oriented. But unlike No Country, this ending is way more satisfying. Its ending is as brutally honest and straightforward as No Country's was random and ambiguous.

Now just because the film ends with dialogue doesn't mean there isn't some violence thrown in. If you've seen any Coen brother film, you know that they can produce some violence scenes that are equally gruesome and realistic in their depiction and this one is no different. I knew going in that I could expect to see some pretty shocking deaths, but it still wasn't enough preparation for when the murders actually took place.

In case it hasn't been made clear, this is truly a Coen brothers movie. If you're a fan of their work, I easily can recommend you see this film. Then again, given their cult status, I'm sure most fans of the Coens have already seen this. Fro everyone else, I feel this is a more accessible film than some of their other works and I would recommend you watch it. If for nothing else, then you can enjoy a lot of A-list stars having a lot of fun playing off-the-wall characters. And if you're not laughing during that final scene, something is wrong with you. Grade: B