I said a while back that I owed you a movie review or 2. here's one....
Burn After Reading
Me and Mrs B have been watching some of the movies that we bought at random from Amazon but then never watched. Mostly this is because we watched the Starwars Trilogy for about the billionth time and were about to start on our monthly trek thorugh the LoTR box set when we realised that we already knew all of the words and should really try to broaden our horizons rather than simply reinforcing the ones we have. Why we thought this is a mystery, but the first part of the result follows....
We have several vids that are still plastic wrapped on the shelf, some because they're classics rebought on DVD (Brazil etc), some because they were cheap and mildly interesting but mostly horror (Mrs B isn't so keen....) and yet others because they have scantily clad female japanese cyborg detectives in them (I'm working my way through those when Mrs B is out) so we never seem to be in the mood to watch them and plump for one of our old standards instead.
Time for pastures new then, we started with the Coen Brothers' latest outing, Burn after Reading. No mystery why we bought this, after all it's a Coen Brothers flick, no other reasons required to spend a tenner. The real question is; why did we leave it on the shelf for 4 months, in that time watching all of Buffy seasons 1 through X and everything ever made on the subject of Dune, plus regular SW/Matrix/LoTR outings, before giving it a look? While looking at this plasticwrapped piece on the shelf, neither of us could answer this, but perhaps ... just perhaps .... our goatse senses were tingling (look it up).
After all, this is the Coen Brothers' Big Day Out. They've spent 15 years making what I can only describe as traditional farce in a modern setting. Some worked better than others, most shined, and all relied on the fundamental stupidity of human beings to drive their stories to their ridiculous concusions. Then came Box office and mainstream critical success with No Country for Old Men, a cracking film but out of character for them in that it failed to dissapear up its own farcical behind (well, OK, I'm not unchallenged in that opinion) and its characters were, by and large, intelligent individuals. The point is it wasn't their own script, they basically shot a book rote. And a bloody good movie it turned out to be too. So then, No Country might be the crow bar that they used to open the doors of Hollywood to their talents, but Burn after reading is the first real showcase of those talents backed by the monster that is Hollywood. So, how did it go?
Let's start with the cast ... and What a cast it is; Brad "flavour of teh fekkking decade" Pitt, John Malkovitch, Juno's dad (erm... JK Simmons), Francis McDormand (of course) and George "fuck off away from my coffee machine, bint" Clooney. I ask you; what could go wrong?
Without overstepping the plot synopsis and heading into spoiler-land, I can tell you that our heroes (Pitt and McDormand) stumble upon the memoires of a disenfranchised CIA analyst (Malkovitch) and proceed to try and blackmail him into paying for some plastic surgery that McDormand's character feels she needs and some more bleach for Pitt's hair (probably, they're never really clear on Pitt's ambitions) and when that looks like it's not going to work, to sell the data to the Russians. So far so farcical ... so why doesn't it work? I'll tell you why; it's all that fekking Brad Pit's fault. OK, maybe that's a little unfair but for fuck's sake if he acted any more stupid I'd start thinking he wasn't acting at all and was just playing the part straight. What a fucking clown. Don't get me wrong; I do not hate Brad Pitt. OK, he's too good looking to be considered with anything other than jealous revulsion by the male movie going public but damn, the guy can act at times. 12 Monkeys, Meet Joe Black, Se7en, Jesse James, Snatch, Fight Club ffs even Mr and Mrs effing Smith. All good (OK, maybe not the last one so much) but this? It's just fucking patronising how much he hams the part up. As if we didnt know we were getting a farce from the start, Pitt has to tattoo it on his forehead then do a funny little dance around the set to whateverthefuck's on his i-pod and a goofy little grin on his face. Tosser.
So, despite the most privaledged of births, it does indeed manage to go wrong. While it's easy to Blame Pitt, I think the problem goes deeper than that. Farce is a subtle art and one in which McDormand has shown her mettle (witness her other Coen turns; Blood Simple and the glory that was Police Chief Marge Gunderson in Fargo), yet she is unconvincing in this (albeit not as unconvincing as Pitt, but don't get me started again, just don't, OK?) and I think I know why; they both act their parts as if the audience can't be trusted to work out that it's comedy. They dont take themselves or their roles seriously and instead they just goof around, breaking the spell that is the farce and here's the trick; farce suceeds or fails on it's characters ability to believe in their story and in its importance to their lives and to the world at large. Farce, in the Coen's world, is comedy that takes itself so seriously that it becomes funnier for it. These 2 are just goofing off and they know it, so much so that I think they were under orders. One assumes that the Coens were aware of this, being masters of the art themselves so they must take their share (which is possibly most now I think about it) of the blame but I think the real problem is that hollywood just doesn't trust the movie going public with it's own popcorn so they've chewed it for us first, ruining the effect in the process leaving us with this runny, spitty, salty, shapeless mess that no-one wants to eat.
This is a real shame as missing this film means you miss some great rants and a rather good character twist from Malkovitch, who has no problem whatsoever taking himself seriously and coming out funnier for it, aswell as absolutely golden dialogue between Malkovitch's ex boss and the CIA director (JK Simmons) another underrated actor who's movies I am going to keep a weather eye out for in the future (along with PS Hoffman and Paul Giamatti)
Burn after Reading? Cliche'd before I've said it I know but Burn before watching, you'll save yourself a couple of hours in which you can remind yourself of how good Fargo, Blood Simple or the Big Lebowski were with a rewatch. Sorry, I really wanted to like this one.
5/10
