slickstu

Burn After Reading is archetypal Coen Bros, doing what they do best and doing it at the top of their game. This time around the Coens bring their acerbic wit to the espionage thriller and the results are as funny and thrilling as anything in their highly impressive back catalogue. Typical of the Coens, the movie consists of an intricate, multistrand plot involving a snubbed CIA analyst (John Malkovich); a womanising, lactose intolerant, hyperallergenic, paranoiac fitness freak (George Clooney); a halfwit, pretty-boy gym junkie (Brad Pitt); and his neurotic, image-obsessed workmate (Francis McDormand) who is intent on selling state secrets to the Russians in order to bankroll her costly plastic surgery makeover. Naturally, this being a Coen film, all manner of lunacy ensues.

Intricate plotting has become a trademark of Coen films and Burn After Reading is no different. The script on offer here is trim and taut and the excellency of the writing is underlined by a series of terrific performances. Everybody is great here, from the big name principle figures to the minor roles. J.R. Horne, in particular, gives a virtuoso performance in the tiny role of the divorce lawyer, flipping amusingly between stolid legal advisor and predacious lawyer. McDormand exhibits considerable bravery; readily submitting herself to the scrutiny of her aging physical attributes, she is clearly a woman who is (admirably) comfortable in her middle age. George Clooney and Brad Pitt defy, yet again, all our attempts to despise them for their charismatic chic by delivering the films two best performances. Tilda Swinton does cold like nobody else can and Malkovich is just Malkovich but love him for it.

Burn After Reading is a safe Coen film. Normally such a statement would be a barely veiled criticism but when it pertains to the work of Joel and Ethan Coen, it's a complement. It is the hot cup of cocoa and the warm doona with the big fluffy pillow on a cold winters night; it's everything we've come to love from a Coen comedy all wrapped up in a comforting, easily digestible package.

8.5 out of 10