Burn After Reading (2008) ***

Ethan and Joel Cohen’s follow up film to their Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men is not for everyone’s liking. If the audience does not buy into the comedic happenstances and goofy characters than the film does not make for an enjoying pastime. However, if you can successfully attain the suspension of disbelief necessary to appreciate the film it certainly makes for a more pleasurable experience. Burn After Reading is essentially about unintelligent people invading the inner-workings of the government intelligence community. Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) has been downgraded in security clearance and had decided to quit the Central Intelligence Agency rather than take a less prestigious post somewhere else. Committed to writing his memoirs, the disk his latest version is saved on has fallen into the hands of Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Felheimer (Brad Pitt), a couple of Hardbodies personal trainers who believe they have ultra-secret material which they can use as leverage for a reward. Misconceptions abound as the cast of characters draw closer and closer together due to the disk which leaves some dead, some running for their lives and everyone confused as to what is actually happening.

Burn After Reading builds off the general confusion and misunderstandings of the characters until the end where it has almost reached ludicrous proportions. Every single character is unsure of what is going around them and each character has a different take on the circumstances. The film has almost a Rashômon structure, but instead of seeing a sequence over and over from a different perspective each time, the film gives you everything at once with only the audience sure, and sometimes not even them, of what is playing out on the screen. The trainers believe they have highly classified “raw intelligence” while Cox continually tries to explain to them, in his own hilariously vulgar way, that they have nothing of value and can only be hurt by what they are trying to do rather than gain any kind of reward. Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) believes he is being tailed by agents of a covert government organization that are out to get him, when it is really one private investigator hired for his pending divorce action. Nothing is what it seems in this comedy of errors and each character’s missteps and miscalculations compound the general hysteria that begins to overtake them all in the end.

It all fits together in the end like pieces of a puzzle and the Cohens certainly deserve credit for dovetailing all the disparate story lines in the end so effectively. The film takes some time to get going as so many characters are introduced in the first half hour and in spite of the excellent casting it feels as if never enough time is spent with any of them. Conversely this is an effective method for keeping the audience interested as they never grow tired with of the characters, no matter how foolish or unlikable they can be. The disk, the catalyst for all the mayhem, doesn’t even appear until about a third of the way through the film, but once it does, the film takes on a brisker and livelier pace which allows the seemingly independent characters to interact and conflict with one another which increases the hilarity factor enormously.

The cast is certainly the best facet of the film with each role, no matter how small, played by an actor who brings their best game possible to the part. It helps that all the players seem to be enjoying the proceedings immensely despite what the trial and tribulations that their characters are going through and continues to prove that, usually, when the actors are enjoying themselves, that sentiment successfully diffuses to the audience. There’s not a bad apple in the bunch with a special mention going to both Richard Jenkins and Tilda Swinton, both of whom I continue to admire and respect with each passing project. Neither of them has particularly large roles in this film, but they continue to impress in spite of such little screen time.

Burn After Reading is one of those films that may benefit from a second viewing in order to enjoy it more. The first time around, the general confusion and sometimes ridiculousness of the plot can be off-putting as time is spent trying to ascertain where exactly the story is headed. However, a second time around can provide a more advantageous opportunity to relax and appreciate the true comedic talents of both the actors and directors alike. Almost as if sensing how the audience will react to the narrative, the Cohens provide two scenes where the CIA Superior (the always reliable J.K. Simmons) and a CIA Officer (David Rasche) discuss what has happened and give their own opinions on the situation. To discover that they are as dumbfounded as to what the hell these other characters are doing is a comfort and provides for some of the biggest laughs of the film. They provide a little rational insight in a comical coating and it gives a sense of security and faith in the CIA that the director of the organization is probably the most sane and intelligent of everyone the audience has met.

Favorite moment: The second of the two scenes with the CIA Superior wraps up the film with the ultimate fates of the characters given in the final report. Ending with him wondering what exactly the lesson was that was supposed to have been learned from all that has happened, the Superior is left grasping for ideas and the audience too is left to ponder what exactly was the meaning of all that was seen. All that is really known at the end is that one of the players got exactly what they desired most and and the audience is left to wonder if it was all worth it. If the CIA can live with all that happened, it’s a safe bet that we can too.