Review: Burn After Reading
Blu-ray: Burn After Reading (2008)
Written and directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, Burn After Reading features an ‘A’ list ensemble cast and is as funny now as it was in 2008.
CIA analyst, Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) has ‘a drinking problem’ and is sacked. Osbourne is married to Katie (Tilda Swinton) who wants to leave him because she’s having an affair with his friend Harry Pffarer (George Clooney).
Osbourne, home alone and bored, decides to write a memoir. His wife Katie, at the instruction of her divorce lawyer, copies and delivers her husband’s digital financial records and other files, unknowingly including the draft of Ozzie’s memoir. The lawyer’s assistant then copies the files onto a CD, which she accidentally leaves on the locker room floor of Hardbodies, a local gym.
This is where the story picks up, as the disc falls into the hands of personal trainer Chad Feldheimer (a wonderful Brad Pitt playing a complete dork) and Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), who think they’ve found a goldmine of American Government secrets.
It IS a complicated plot, with intertwined stories, but it’s clever and very funny, McDormand playing vain and stupid Linda perfectly and Brad Pitt and George Clooney both playing against type effectively.
Not one of the Coen’s more popular films (I don’t know why!) but very entertaining if you like your comedy clever.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Finding the Burn: The making of Burn After Reading
- DC Insiders Run a Muck: An all-star cast creates the world of Washington, DC, insiders all trying to get ahead or find true love
- Welcome Back, George: This comedy piece features Mr. Clooney as he returns for his third collaboration with Ethan and Joel.
Released 25th July 2022.
Review by Tina from a disc kindly supplied by Fabulous Films.
