Burn after Reading a clever comedy
Thu 23 October 2008
Sandra Smith, Communication
Burn after Reading is a comedy thriller by Academy Award winners, the Coen brothers.
The movie is a combination of satire, farce and slapstick, with a clever script that embraces a dark, post-modern theme.
John Malkovich delivers an excellent performance as former CIA agent Osbourne Cox, and George Clooney and Brad Pitt bring a comic element to the film.
Clooney plays charming womaniser and serial dater Harry, and Brad Pitt draws on slapstick as gym worker Chad.
The movie begins with Cox’s sacking from the CIA and his subsequent torment and soul-searching as he faces a mid-life crisis and his marriage falls apart.
The sterile CIA headquarters and ‘men in suits’ are cleverly juxtaposed with scenes from local gym Hardbodies, where employees Linda and Chad plot to blackmail the CIA.
Pitt is surprisingly funny as Chad, the bumbling fitness worker caught up in a farcical situation involving the CIA and the Russian embassy.
Linda, Chad’s colleague at Hardbodies, reflects modern woman’s obsession with finding a man and with body image.
Linda meets with her plastic surgeon and plans multiple procedures in her search for the perfect body that she needs to overcome her insecurities.
The scene at the doctor’s surgery parodies our fitness obsession, as Linda is convinced she needs surgery and will go to any lengths to find the money to pay for it.
The script has multiple themes and sub-plots that are cleverly worked into the story, and the movie covers everything from marital infidelity through to government incompetence.
As the plot unfolds, the action increases, with deepening intrigue and obligatory murders that maintain the audience’s engagement right up to the end of the film, where the disparate elements are brought together in a clever conclusion.
Image(s) designed by n/a