CINEMA: Burn After Reading

After the thought-provoking, serious drama of No Country For Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen return to their trademark kooky comedy genre. But Burn After Reading is not classic Coen fodder in the vein of The Big Lebowski, mainly because the comedy is too patchy and there are long sections that aren’t funny at all.

Linda (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt) work in a fitness centre where one day they come across a computer disc left in the locker room. It appears to contain sensitive information about the CIA and Russian agents and so the pair hatch a plan to use the disc as a bargaining chip in order to obtain money from its rightful owner, CIA agent Osborne Cox (John Malkovich). But Linda and Chad unwittingly open a veritable Pandora’s box of intrigue with their amateur espionage, drawing in Cox’s wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) and her married lover, federal marshal Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney). Soon the heat is on, the pair can’t get out of the mess they’ve created and bodies start turning up.

Although Brad Pitt is hilarious as the camp and clueless Chad, and there’s a great scene where Cox tries to overcome his writing block, there are other scenes that take too long to set up and fail to hit the comedy button. Yes, it’s mildly amusing, but it’s just not up to the Coens’ usual, barmily brilliant standard. Dee Pilgrim