Her life is passing her by while she is stuck on one of those circle of hell telephone systems, and her time away from the blower is barely enough for her to check out potential partners on online dating websites. Linda (Frances McDormand) is a proponent of positive thinking but so far it’s not done much for her. Linda (bright and desperate) and Chad (dumb and dumber) are fitness trainers at Hardbodies and examine the newly found disc before getting involved in an entirely self-made and disastrous attempt to leverage their find for money. Meanwhile at the local Hardbodies gym, Katie’s lawyer’s assistant has accidentally left behind the disc containing not only Katie and Ozzie’s financial information but also his memoir which has been inadvertently included. ![]() Ozzie’s new situation pushes her to think seriously about divorce, a development which has her lawyer practically salivating with glee as he encourages her to dig out her husband’s financials just in case.Īfter the kerfuffle over the drinking problem he doesn’t have, Ozzie does indeed start writing his memoirs, though it’s hard work lying on a couch talking about oneself into a dictaphone so he has to stop for a drink quite regularly. Ozzie’s wife Katie is having an affair with married Treasury worker Harry (George Clooney), to whom she also speaks irritably. Then again her every word is said irritably). He decides to fill his newly free time writing (“Write? Write what?” asks his wife irritably. Osbourne, or Ozzie, is one of those people who thinks everything is everyone else’s fault which must be a hard position to maintain when you’re married to Tilda Swinton who makes clear everything is actually your fault. Naturally as a middle-aged narcissist he has to indulge in some serious deflecting to make himself feel better before he achieves a hollow victory by resigning: “Fuck you Peck you’re a Mormon! Next to you we all have a drinking problem… Whose ass didn’t I kiss?… This is a crucifixion, this is political and don’t tell me it’s not!” I’ve never been demoted but I have been made redundant so many times that poor Osbourne’s meeting struck a chord, even though I don’t have a drink problem unless you include tea. He’s a CIA analyst suffering from middle-aged narcissism and a drink problem and that means a demotion (well, the drink problem does). We’re in the CIA headquarters in Virginia with Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich). Then again, maybe we don't always need a reason to laugh out loud.“Jesus what a clusterfuck” is the CIA boss’s fitting assessment of the situation at the end of Burn After Reading, after a group of inadequates have taken just enough time off from screwing each other to create a bloody, criminal mess that is entirely of their own making and results in death and serious injury but hopefully a free boob job too.Ĭlick here for Burn After Reading video review But when characters are expended as blithely as they are here, you can't help asking that question. It lacks a certain amount inspiration and, well, to paraphrase one character, a point. It doesn't push the envelope far enough - at least for a Coen brothers movie. For all its cheek, it's not actually all that brazen. But it's really McDormand who owns the film Linda is so desperate and yet so likeable that the madness she cooks up is almost palatable. ![]() Start with Pitt (as funny as he's ever been), then add a dash of Swinton, a swig of Clooney, and plenty of Malkovich for good measure. The brothers have assembled an incomparable cast, mixing up a potent dark comedy potion. Violence punctuates the jokes (you'll laugh you can't help it). In the Coens' zany universe, nothing is sacred - not marriage, not friendship, not even the CIA. The farce begins with the opening credits' satellite pictures and sinister footfalls and doesn't let up from there. Wickedly funny and plainly outrageous, BURN AFTER READING gleefully takes potshots at spy films, making a big deal out of nothing, really.
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