Coen Bros. Return to Familiar Territory with Hilarious "Burn After Reading"

The Coen Brothers, Ethan and Joel, have definitely made their mark in Hollywood. They've done a wide array of films, from noir to dark comedy, from drama to standard comedy. Last year, they once again got honored for their work, bringing home Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars for their drama No Country For Old Men (it also earned Javier Bardem a Best Supporting Actor Oscar). Their latest film, Burn After Reading, is far from their Oscar winning film, but provides all the entertainment you can get while watching a film from the Coen Bros.

The story involves multiple lives, as a lot of the Coen Bros. films do. One is Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich), a CIA agent who gets unjustly fired and decides to write a book about his time in the agency. His wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton) wants to divorce him and start a real relationship with the man she's been cheating on, Treasury agent Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), who's also married. At the advice of her lawyer, she makes a copy of all of Osbourne's personal documents and top secret files and puts them on a disc. One day, that disc is discovered at a local fitness center by the not-so-bright Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), who, along with his friend and co-worker, Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) decide to return it to whomever it belongs to, in hopes of getting a reward. Linda is mainly in on it because she wants to get some money so she can get liposuction. What turns out to be hopes for a reward turns to blackmail when Osbourne gets ornery with them over the phone. Meanwhile, Linda tries this online dating service and ends up meeting Harry, who begins seeing her as well. Linda takes the information to the Russians in hoping that Osbourne will give them the money they feel they rightly deserve. This ends up intersecting all the lives as Chad and Linda scramble to uncover more information from Osbourne's personal files, Osbourne tries to get the information back from them by any means necessary, and Harry begins to think that the U.S. Government is spying on him.

In all it's madcap glory, this is one hilarious movie. The comedic timing is great and there are serious moments of pure laughter. The cast does a terrific job. It's especially funny seeing Pitt in a nutball role. It's Malkovich though that steals the show. The story is dark, but funny and the Coen Bros. show that they still have what it takes. This is truly one of the funniest movies of the year.

3 1/2 stars