Burn After Reading Review by Shale September 14, 2008 Seems the summer action movies are over and there is really not much to interest me until December when The Day the Earth Stood Still comes out. But, having movie withdrawal, I went to the Cineplex today and saw this dark comedy. It looked like lite fare from the trailers, which showed an airhead Brad Pitt trying to shake down a CIA agent, John Malcovich and getting popped in the nose for his efforts. Also the cast included George Clooney and J.K. Simmons so it had all the makings of a good farce. But know that it is R-rated for the reasons of sexual situations and extremely graphic, blood splatter, violence. However, it was funny; the whole theater was laughing, which makes me question our humanity. We start with our arrogant CIA operative Osborne Cox (John Malcovich) being demoted. He gets angry, quits the agency and decides to write his memoirs. Disgruntled Agent Osborne His domineering and frigid wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) is planning a divorce as she is having an affair with Treasury Agent Harry Pfaffer (George Clooney) who is actually sex obsessed and having affairs with other women including Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) a health club worker who hungers for male attention and wants to get $50K worth of body work that her insurance won't cover. Katie, while secretly downloading her husband's financial reports in anticipation of her divorce also copies the beginning of his memoirs onto the disc. This disc is lost in the health club where it falls into the hands of Linda and her brainless co-worker Chad (Brad Pitt). Found Disc with Top Secret Memoir They locate Osborne and try to extort money for the return of the disc. After Osborne punches Chad in the nose Linda decides that they should sell it to the Russians. The rest of the movie plays out with all these intrigues of disintegrating marriages, obsessive greed for the body enhancement operations, and paranoia within the intelligence community. The movie picks up pace as everything falls into place or actually falls apart. Again, it is a dark comedy with some pretty violent moments. An Angry Osborne However, some of the most hilarious moments while all this pandemonium is taking place with our protagonists, is the deadpan comments by the CIA Superior (J.K. Simmons) as the ever spiraling reports are coming in from the grey-suited agent. He isn't really concerned about all the chaos, or the bodies to be disposed of, just wanting to keep a lid on it. I liked the movie and will probably get it on DVD when it comes down in price. BTW, when Chad is negotiating with Osborne, he takes an alias, "Mr. Black." Just a little movie trivia for those familiar with Brad Pitt characters.
