The Coen brothers does it again, a great and original black comedy-crime film. Burn after Reading is brilliantly written, extremely funny and masterfully directed. The film is written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The story follows a recently jobless CIA analyst, Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) whose misplaced memoirs are found by a pair of dimwitted gym employees (Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt). When they mistake the memoirs for classified government documents, they undergo a series of misadventures in an attempt to profit from their find. The film also stars George Clooney as a womanizing U. S. Marshal, Tilda Swinton as Katie Cox, the wife of Osbourne Cox, Richard Jenkins as the gym manager, and J. K. Simmons as a CIA supervisor.
It was the first movie of the Coen's not to have Roger Deakins as the cinematographer and it kind of shows, but the award nominated Emmanuel Lubezki was the right choice for this film and the cinematography is incredible. I also want to praise the acting in the film, especially Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand, though it isn't the actors best they completely nailed the comedy aspect of the performance, how they executed the witty and smart written dialogue was seriously top notch. George Clooney is another actor who gave a terrific performance, it might not seem that great at first but the character is just so different from what he usually plays. John Malkovich was probably the funniest after Brad Pitt's performance.
This isn't Joel and Ethan Coen's best film, but it's a worthy addition to their filmography as it shows how great storytellers and filmmakers they are. The simple plot shouldn't really work but the tone and feeling that their films have but they completely nailed it. Though it is far from perfect, it's still a very entertaining movie with memorable comedic performances.
