Burn After Reading.

It's now been far too long since I actually seen this movie but I shall attempt to write about it all the same.  Laziness is my biggest fault and it is now showing through quite clearly in my output on this blog.  Ahwell, it is just basically for myself anyway.

Burn After Reading.

I have never known a Coen Brothers movie to divide opinion in my friends as much as this one.  All the girls hated it, and all the guys loved it.  That is not to say that this is a guy's movie, a bit gory at some points for some people maybe but no more so a thousand other movies around just now.  The girls main complaint was that there 'wasn't a plot,' which I can understand to an extent as the movie does leave a somewhat hollow feeling.  But the point is this is not No Country for Old Men, this is a comedy and as a comedy I thought it was the most genuinely funny Coens movie I have seen.  It delighted me to hear that they wrote the script for this at the same time as No Country... taking one day for one script and the next for the other, writing Burn After Reading when they needed something a little more light-hearted to work on.  And that is exactly what this movie is, a little more light-hearted than No Country.  Sure it won't win Best Picture, but that does not stop it being a rather good movie.

George Clooney and John Malkovich are the two strongest performers for me, managing to make the outlandish twists and turns of the script feel real and grounded.  Frances McDormand is good also, but there is just something about her that I don't really like.  That sounds harsh, probably because it is but there you have it.  The same goes for Tilda Swinton, although a little more justly I feel as she is somewhat one dimensional in this film.  Brad Pitt is a difficult one for me in this film, he is the source of most of the laughs, but I feel took the dull-witted stupidity of his character too far and ended up losing the grounded feeling brought by Malkovich and Clooney.

Well, as expected from the Coens the movie is brilliantly shot and paced.  They constantly change the pace around in a way that with lesser directors could become disorientating, but somehow just adds more to the experience I feel.  I did say this would be a long one, but I have left it too long now, I need to try and write these a lot fresher from the movie.

8/10