Burn After Reading
They have been with us from as far back as
Blood Simple (1984) and, following their Oscar-winning epiphany with the overrated
No Country for Old Men (2007) (which should never have taken Best Film and Best Director away from Paul Thomas Anderson’s sublime
There Will Be Blood (2007)), Ethan and Joel Coen return with a largely good-natured romp - one with more than a few echoes of what is les freres Coen’s actual masterpiece,
The Big Lebowski (1998).
Few directors blend themes as seamlessly as the Coens (here, for example, we have comedy/thriller of sorts/emotional screw-turning) nor, seemingly, does anyone have the same knack for tight, naturalistic, credible and frequently hilarious dialogue. It’s obviously for this reason that stars of the calibre of John Malkovich, Brad Pitt, and George Clooney are queuing up to appear in their films - hell, they’d do it for free, probably.
Following up on the earlier Lebowski reference, Burn After Reading most closely resembles its ancestor in its depiction of the consequences that a mere storm in a teacup may bring - John Malkovich is Osbourne Cox, a cynical CIA agent (is there any other kind, one wonders?) trapped in a loveless marriage to Katie (Tilda Swinton) and who, after storming out of his job, decides to attempt to write his memoirs.
But he’s careless with the extensive records of his experiences that he’s has put on disk by way of background, and even more careless where he leaves his CD - specifically, on the floor near his locker in the local ‘Hardbodies’ gym. This brings him into the orbit of gym workers Chad Feldheimer (a wonderfully dense turn from Brad Pitt) and lonely heart Linda Litzke, who has her heart set on various surgical procedures to improve her looks and figure, but who is, temporarily, short on the dough.
The bumbling pair, believing they have stumbled on another Watergate, try to blackmail Osbourne and, when that doesn’t quite work out as planned, take their ‘prize information’ to the local Russian embassy. Complications ensue, naturally - and did I mention that former security operative Harry (’Never discharged it once in 20 years’) Pfarrer (George Clooney) is busy screwing not only Katie Cox, but Linda as well? And that he and Osbourne are far from friendly? This may not seem relevant, but trust me, you need to know. The plot, needless to say, thickens…
The film’s principle joy lies in the fact that all the actors involved are so clearly enjoying playing ball with the Coens - you get the impression (in much the same way that Sam Elliot, who played ‘The Stranger’ narrator in Lebowski, apparently didn’t know what most of his dialogue meant but was told by the directors ‘Keep it up Sam, you’re doing great!’) that they’re along for the ride, and thus take the audience with them.
For example, it’s difficult to imagine any other film depicting George Clooney working for days on end on a bizarre, unicycleesque pleasuring device, which he then proudly shows off to Linda. Check out the following exchange, which could only take place on Planet Coen:
Harry Pfarrer: Ya wanna come downstairs? Ya like surprises?
Linda Litzke: [cheerful] Well, I’m always open to new experiences.
Harry Pfarrer: Yeah, I tell ya. I saw an ad for this in a gentlemen’s magazine. Twelve hundred bucks. I’m lookin’ at this thing and I think, ‘You gotta be kiddin’ me.’ I’m a hobbyist. Thing’s basically nothing but speed rails. I figure I’d go down to Home Depot and whip this up myself for… a hundred bucks.
Linda Litzke: What is it?
Harry Pfarrer: What is it?
[pats the seat of the mechanism]
Harry Pfarrer: You sit down there, make yourself comfortable, put your feet in the stirrups, and…
[cycles the mechanism, a dildo moves rhythmically up and down in the centre of the seat]
Linda Litzke: Oh my God.
[awed whisper]
Linda Litzke: That’s fantastic.
Harry Pfarrer: It’s something, isn’t it? Hundred bucks, all in - not counting my labour, and the…cost of the dildo. Those things aren’t cheap. See, I’d like to…
[pause]
Harry Pfarrer: …I’m not set up to mould hard rubber.
Malkovich can seemingly do no wrong nowadays, and his dangerously off-kilter, mind-at-the-end-of-its-tether characterization here comes off as a cracking combination of his Tom Ripley in
Ripley's Game (2002) and, well, his put-upon John Malkovich in…Being
John Malkovich (1999). Pitt, on the other hand, delivers one of the finest comic performances of his career, while Clooney is clearly having a whale of a time at the expense of his ‘all things to all women’ persona.
It will be/has been dismissed in some quarters as Coen-lite, and the naysayers may have a point in that the whole seems somewhat pointless but, there again, one could argue that this is the film’s very raison d'être - if the dialogue above gives the impression that it’s going to be a happy ride from start to finish, think again. Even if it seems hilarious, people really do get hurt. A little like life, perhaps?
96 mins.
21st European Film Awards: And The Winners Are...
Matteo Garrone’s harsh, hard-hitting exposé of the Neapolitan mafia, Gomorra, took five awards, while everyone’s favourite ‘M’, Dame Judi Dench, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 21st European Film Awards ceremony in Copenhagen, on 6 December 2008.
THE WINNERS
Best Film: Gomorra
Best Director: Matteo Garrone, Gomorra
Best Actor: Toni Servillo, Gomorra
Best Actress: Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You So Long
Best Screenwriter: Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso and Roberto Saviano, Gomorra
Carlo di Palma European Cinematographer Award: Marco Onorato, Gomorra
European Film Academy Prix D’Excellence: Magdalena Biedrzycka for costume design, Katyn
Best Composer: Max Richter, Waltz With Bashir
European Film Academy Critics Award - Prix FIPRESCI: Abdellatif Kechiche, The Secret of the Grain
European Film Academy Documentary - Prix Arte Rene: Rene by Helena Trestikova
European Film Academy Short Film - Prix UIP: Frankie by Darren Thornton
European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award: Dame Judi Dench
European Achievement in World Cinema: Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, Kristian Levring, Lars von Trier, and Thomas Vinterberg
European Discovery Award: Steve McQueen (Hunger)
People’s Choice Award: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
James Drew
'Expatica's weekly cinema-review section is brought to you in collaboration with Picturenose.com'
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Picturenose’s James Drew forgives Joel and Ethan Coen for taking the gongs away from There Will Be Blood at the Oscars as he enjoys their latest, Burn After Reading, and presents the winners of the 6 December European Film Awards.
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