When the Coen brothers released “Burn After Reading” less than a year after their Oscar-winning 2007 film “No Country for Old Men,” it represented a drastic shift from dark existential drama to goofy, madcap comedy. Even though the Coens had made plenty of comedies in the past, “Burn After Reading” still seemed like a deliberate retreat from the heaviness of “No Country for Old Men,” and as a result many viewers and critics dismissed it as a lesser effort.
In a review I wrote at the time, I called it “a lark,” but that doesn’t give the Coens enough credit for their cleverness. With “Burn After Reading” set to leave Netflix in a few days, this is the perfect time for viewers to appreciate just how smart and entertaining it really is.
“Burn After Reading” may not carry the same haunting dread of “No Country for Old Men,” but in its own way, it’s just as biting an assessment of humanity as that bleak, harrowing Cormac McCarthy adaptation. It’s also one of the funniest movies the Coens have made, full of hilarious line readings from a top-notch cast, with an absurd set-up that gets even more absurd as the movie goes on.
It wouldn’t be correct to call “Burn After Reading” a spoof, but from its opening moments, it skewers the self-seriousness of spy thrillers, using the language of movies like the Jason Bourne series for a story about deluded idiots engaged in meaningless, incompetent subterfuge.
‘Burn After Reading’ perfectly mocks convoluted spy thrillers
The opening shot of “Burn After Reading” begins in the upper atmosphere, slowly zooming down as the intense, insistent music of Carter Burwell’s score suggests life-or-death stakes. A figure strides purposefully down the hallways of CIA headquarters, perhaps headed to a top-secret meeting about high-level espionage.
But that’s not what’s happening at all. Instead, mid-ranking CIA analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) walks into a room where his boss Palmer Smith (David Rasche) informs him that he’s being demoted, and the petulant Cox quits in a huff rather than accept a lower position.
That impulsive decision sets off a series of ridiculous events that ultimately gets multiple people killed, over supposedly sensitive state secrets that amount to nothing. The aimless, frequently drunk Cox decides that he’s going to write a memoir, even though he never did anything particularly interesting at the CIA. When a disc with his initial draft gets left behind at local Washington, D.C., gym Hardbodies, a pair of opportunistic, dim-witted employees see it as their ticket to easy money.
Vacant himbo personal trainer Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) and vain, insecure administrator Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) attempt to blackmail Cox over what they believe are important covert documents, in a plan that’s only slightly more disastrous than Cox’s writing project.
The increasingly dangerous operation eventually also involves Cox’s wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton), and her lover, U.S. Marshal Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), both of whom are equally oblivious and paranoid. “They all seem to be sleeping with each other,” Palmer tells his boss (J.K. Simmons) in one of his baffled reports on the situation.
An all-star cast revels in the silliness
The Coens are always able to attract A-list talent to their projects, and “Burn After Reading” gives superstars like Pitt and Clooney the chance to cut loose and embrace buffoonery. Pitt gives his best comedic performance as the sweet but dumb Chad, who comes up with the idea to capitalize on his discovery for money-making purposes. The initial awkward phone call between Chad and Cox, with Linda listening in, is one of the funniest scenes in any Coen Brothers movie, full of blustering miscommunication.
McDormand, a staple of Coen Brothers movies from the beginning (and the real-life wife of Joel Coen), gets to play against type as the narcissistic Linda, who’s fixated on the idea of getting multiple plastic surgeries to improve her dating prospects. Clooney punctures his own suave image as Harry, who talks big about his training as a Marshal but falls apart at the first sign of danger.
Richard Jenkins brings some soulfulness to his role as perhaps the only good person in the movie, a former priest who pines for Linda while they work together at Hardbodies, and is eventually punished for his pure intentions.
These characters are all similarly desperate and sad, lying to themselves and each other about their motivations and capabilities. They’re so silly that it takes a little while to realize how pathetic they are, and the Coens mock their cluelessness while reserving a bit of compassion for the humanity behind it.
Cox accuses his tormentors of being “a league of morons,” but he’s a central part of that league. These people are more alike than they’re ever willing to acknowledge, and that makes their bumbling efforts at sabotage even funnier.
‘Burn After Reading’ is more relevant than ever
With the current farce proceeding in Washington on a daily basis, the self-centered losers of “Burn After Reading” seem more prescient all the time. Nobody in this movie cares about public policy or doing what’s best for the country — only taking advantage of their small positions of power to advance their own interests.
In that way, “Burn After Reading” is just as cynical as “No Country for Old Men,” and just as unsettling. If we’re stuck in a world run by nitwits like these, though, at least the Coens know how to make us laugh about it.
“Burn After Reading” is streaming on Netflix until September 1.