Burn After Reading

When you go to see a movie by the Coen brothers, you have to expect something weird. Burn After Reading is in some ways more of the same, a collection of strange characters behaving strangely, but in other ways it is of a piece with their last, ostensibly far more serious movie, No Country for Old Men. Like that previous work, Burn includes a few moments of sudden and extreme violence (though far fewer than Old Men) and ends on a note that is existentially very downbeat. (Of course, in Burn the delivery of the message is comic and quite funny.)

None of this is to say that you won't laugh. You will, both at the situations, at the clever turns of phrase, and most of all at Brad Pitt. As dumb and fun to watch as he was in the trailers, he's even dumber and more fun to watch here.

The entire cast does a fine job, and as is often the case in a Coen brothers film, the actors with bit parts show just how much one can make of a small role.

If you're a fan of the Coen brothers, I recommend this one, but don't be surprised if you come out scratching your head a bit and wondering if there was enough pay-off for the ride.