Running time: 95 minutes
Starring: John Malkovich, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, Tilda Swinton
Rating 8 out of 10
After reaching new high-minded heights and taking home a clutch of Oscars with their superlative No Country For Old Men, the Coen Brothers are back on familiar territory with their latest release, a slapstick comedy which is as silly as anything they have ever done. Fans of the brothers' comedies have not been well served in recent times, and there have been concerns that this usually reliable film-making team was undergoing some sort of mid-career slump. Their remake of The Ladykillers failed miserably and Intolerable Cruelty was a screwball which many viewers found, well, just intolerable. So it's a delight to report that Burn After Reading is not only their funniest film in years, but it's a definite comedy highlight in an already sparkling resume.
A zany and labyrinthine plot focuses on John Malkovich's Osbourne Cox, an ungracious and self-loving prig who believes he is something big at one of the foreign desks at the CIA. But when he learns he is surplus to requirements, he strops out of the office and plans his revenge by writing his tell-all memoirs. Unfortunately they are incoherent, pretentiously written and of little interest to anyone. Cox mislays the disc on which his recollections are kept only for it to fall into the hands of gym colleagues Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) who believe they have struck gold and can blackmail him.
Meanwhile Cox's wife (Tilda Swinton) is having an affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a security expert and sex maniac who trawls the net for hot dates and constructs unusual 'devices' in his basement. Harry's own marriage to a celebrated children's author (Elizabeth Marvel) is also in trouble.
It may sound complex and indeed it is, but the Coens have refound the sparkle and comedic timing that helped to make their name, and it's quite easy to sit back and let the whole thing wash over you with a big smile on your face. This is largely thanks to a smorgasbord of excellent performances: but it's Malkovich's Osbourne that holds the whole thing together. Given free rein, he produces a comedic tour-de-force.
Paul Hurley
