Movie Review : Burn After Reading
Genre : Coen Brothers :-)
Released : 2008
Director : Coen Brothers
Starring : George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich
My Rating : 9 out of 10
In all aspects, this is a Coen Brothers' movie. This is how they make movies. Quirky and unpredictable. This is not intended to pigeon-hole their work, but to note that that have a unique unmistakable style of their own. This will also help you decide if you want to watch this movie. Did you like their other movies - especially the ones that came before "No country For Old Men" ?
I am not sure I can capture the synopsis of this tangled tale. Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is being demoted from his CIA post. His wife Katie who is already unhappy with this eventually files for divorce. She is having an affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) who himself is as dishonest a husband as one can be. In parallel, are Chad (Brad Pitt) and Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) who work at a local gym and their lives getting curiously tangled with the first set of people. What follows is a mixture of comedy and tragedy.
The brothers keep a very calculated control over this entanglement. The movie never gets more complicated than needed. In spite of never taking itself too seriously, it works on many levels. These people are deeply unhappy, so you feel bad for them. But they are either not-so-nice or dumb-witted, so you cannot really root for them. So you just end of chuckling at their plight (most of the times, not always) and at the same time, you cannot ignore the real social issue that the movie is highlighting in passing.
Helping the brothers make this a wonderful ride is their usual cast of actors (George Clooney, Frances McDormand), and of course Brad Pitt. Both Clooney and Brad Pitt have been given different roles than what you would expect from their personality and both shine. Frances McDormand is as good as she was in Fargo. John Malkovich is delightfully weird.
Overall, I highly recommend this movie. It's quite short - less than 100 minutes. As usual, Coen Brothers have delivered a movie that more than satisfies the desire to watch something different.
Released : 2008
Director : Coen Brothers
Starring : George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich
My Rating : 9 out of 10
In all aspects, this is a Coen Brothers' movie. This is how they make movies. Quirky and unpredictable. This is not intended to pigeon-hole their work, but to note that that have a unique unmistakable style of their own. This will also help you decide if you want to watch this movie. Did you like their other movies - especially the ones that came before "No country For Old Men" ?
I am not sure I can capture the synopsis of this tangled tale. Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is being demoted from his CIA post. His wife Katie who is already unhappy with this eventually files for divorce. She is having an affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) who himself is as dishonest a husband as one can be. In parallel, are Chad (Brad Pitt) and Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) who work at a local gym and their lives getting curiously tangled with the first set of people. What follows is a mixture of comedy and tragedy.
The brothers keep a very calculated control over this entanglement. The movie never gets more complicated than needed. In spite of never taking itself too seriously, it works on many levels. These people are deeply unhappy, so you feel bad for them. But they are either not-so-nice or dumb-witted, so you cannot really root for them. So you just end of chuckling at their plight (most of the times, not always) and at the same time, you cannot ignore the real social issue that the movie is highlighting in passing.
Helping the brothers make this a wonderful ride is their usual cast of actors (George Clooney, Frances McDormand), and of course Brad Pitt. Both Clooney and Brad Pitt have been given different roles than what you would expect from their personality and both shine. Frances McDormand is as good as she was in Fargo. John Malkovich is delightfully weird.
Overall, I highly recommend this movie. It's quite short - less than 100 minutes. As usual, Coen Brothers have delivered a movie that more than satisfies the desire to watch something different.
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