There are those who have never quite
been on Joel and Ethan Coen’s wavelength in terms of comedy, but
I’m not in that group. In fact, I’m as big a Coen Brothers fan
as anybody; I even dug their critically-lambasted Intolerable
Cruelty and The Ladykillers. But I flat-out didn’t
get why 95 percent of the material in their latest effort,
Burn After Reading, was supposed to be funny as I suffered
through it. As the typical old, progressive Los Angeles elitists
in attendance at the advanced screening of the film I patronized
hooted and hollered, I sat in a state of disbelief. “This
piece of you know what was written and directed by the same
brothers who brought us No Country for Old Men and
Fargo?” I thought to myself. "How could that be?" Minor as
the Coens intended for Burn After Reading to seem, the
movie is inexcusably unfunny.
What else is there for me to say
about the film? Its plot about a group of fitness-trainers who
find what they assume is a disc full of covert CIA files on
their gym’s floor—it’s really a neurotic ex-agent’s (John
Malkovich) confusingly-written memoirs—isn’t worth dissecting.
The narrative succeeds neither as a comedy nor as a thriller.
Only one member of the movie’s cast (Brad Pitt, playing the
doofus of all doofuses) can be credited with the two chuckles
the film provoked in me. The rest of the seasoned actors—Malkovich,
George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Peter
Jenkins, among others—only seem to be present in the picture
either because A) they’re a usual Coen-collaborator or B) they
sought an easy-paycheck. (In other words, not much creativity is
on-display in the acting-department.) Without much to discuss,
I’ll merely end on a necessary note of caution: no matter how
big a Coen fan you think you are, Burn After Reading
isn’t worth your time or money. Vicky Christina Barcelona,
Tropic Thunder, and The House Bunny, while all
imperfect in their own rights, collectively represent a variety
of comedies in release that you’ll be able to laugh at (and
enjoy yourself) a lot more while watching.
-Danny Baldwin, Bucket Reviews
Review Published on: 9.12.2008
Screened on: 9.10.2008 at the Aero
Theatre in Santa Monica, CA.