An Afternoon at the Theater With the Coens

Burn After Reading Directed by Joel Coen

Synopsis: A Central Intelligence Officer loses his job, begins writing memoirs about his former job, and then loses the disc containing those memoirs. This disc falls into the hands of a group of gym employees, and two of them decide to try and return it. The ensuing phone call leads to confusion and hysteria between the characters, and none of it is resolved until it consumes a few more characters, Russia, and the United States Government itself. Directed by Joel Coen (No Country for Old Men), and written by Joel and his brother Ethan (Big Lebowski).

This first thought that crossed my mind at the end of this film was “that escalated quickly.” This film isn’t about some super secret spy infiltrating enemy territory, and trying to escape alive. It’s merely a film about a few blue collar Americans getting caught up in the misinformation game, and everything spiraling out of control. There’s no expert C.I.A. operative dispatched to “clean” things up, or some bomb dropped on the whole situation. Instead all these unstable people are left to deal with this mess by themselves, despite insistence on getting Big Brother involved. The journey isn’t a long one, but a lot of stuff happens to a lot of little people.

This film moves at a very even pace. From beginning to end the film flows unhindered and unheeded. Every character is fleshed out well. We get to see the daily lives of some would be blackmailers, spies, and playboys, but before you know it the film has reached it’s conclusion. It almost sneaks up on the viewer, and without J.K. Simmons character’s inclusion, it may have been entirely missed. There’s a bunch of build up throughout the film, some of which going unfulfilled (Tilda Swinton’s character seems to get lost in the shuffle by the end), but it’s no heart pumping thrill ride. It all happens at a rate similar to any regular day, only it has tons of irregular circumstances, though that’s probably what people come to expect from the Coens these days.

The acting in this film is grade A to be sure, but I’m going to follow that with a name rarely mentioned (if at all) by this film’s marketing campaign, Richard Jenkins. An acting veteran with over fifty credits in such films as I Heart Huckabees, Step Brothers, Outside Providence, and even other Coen’s fare (Intollerable Cruelty, The Man Who Wasn’t There). Jenkins, in this film of deviant, thoughtless, selfish characters, stands out as the only redeemable character in his turn as Ted the manager of Hard Bodies. He’s the only character you can help feeling any sympathy towards in his role in the whole fiasco. I’ve seen Richard Jenkins play many different roles, but he takes a real run at stealing the show in pretty much all of his scenes. You’ll get the great comedic performances you expect to get out of Pitt, Clooney, McDormand, and Malkovich, but Jenkins’ more dramatic turn stands as an unexpectedly pleasant surprise.

Also worth mentioning in the acting department is J.K. Simmons, who basically sums up the entire film’s events perfectly in his VERY limited screen time. Great to see him getting another chance to work opposite the camera with the Coen Brothers. Despite not being a big supporter of the Ladykillers, I found Simmons performance outrageously humourous in that film.

Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed this film a great deal. I laughed and laughed some more. Brad Pitt made me laugh, even in scenes I’d already caught the gist of from trailers, and the rest of the cast doesn’t seem to have any trouble keeping up. This movie is for people who enjoy “black comedies.” There’s certainly a niche audience when it comes to comedies involving any kind of casualty body count, and this film certainly has some characters “biting the bullet,” so to speak. If you’re a fan of the other Coen films set in modern day America, you’d probably enjoy this one quite a bit.

WTF Moment: Chad meeting Harry... Runner up: Harry’s Wife’s gift.

Theater Experience/ Rental/ Pass altogether: It’s the Coens following up No Country For Old Men, you kind of owe it to them to see it in theaters... Don’t you?


By Jeffrey Paul Louis Schiller