I have been a long-time fan of Joel and Ethan Coen. Ever since I first watched Fargo and found myself laughing at things that I really shouldn’t have been laughing at. I mean, why would someone so innocent as I be laughing as a kidnapper shoves his accomplice into a wood chipper? [How about a spoiler warning! Geez, Gabe. The movie is only twelve years old! -ed] This was when
I was in high school, before I started to try and keep track of who directed what, so I had no clue that I was a Coen Brothers fan until later. Not long after Fargo I watched what soon was deemed as one of my top ten movies of all time (and still is): The Big Lebowski. Soon after, I started keeping track of the Coens and tried to watch all of their movies even going back as far as Blood Simple. Needless to say… I am a fan of Joel and Ethan.
Last year the Coens released No Country for Old Men. I enjoyed this movie as its character-driven plot took you through the dangers of steeling drug money. It was a slower, more serious movie that left you a little disturbed at the end. Many people that I know didn’t enjoy it because of one reason or another, but I liked the frustration that the Coens were able to instill in the audience. …Plus the movie had a really awesome villain. Blood Simple (the Coens first movie) was also a serious thriller that kind of left you with a dark feeling in your stomach at the end.
Coming off of this serious thriller I expected them to swing towards the comedic side of the spectrum. I was not wrong.
Burn After Reading was a zany dark (and I mean DARK) comedy where the innocent are punished and everybody else is a little insane. George Clooney (who has worked with the Coens on two other comedies, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou and Intolerable Cruelty) performed excellently as a quirky sex-crazed adulterer. Frances McDormand (Ethan’s wife who has worked with the brothers on several projects dating as far back as Blood Simple) immersed herself in the role of simple, opportunistic, self-absorbed physical trainer who needs a series of “operations” in order for her to do her job.
The movie was brilliantly done, both starting and ending at CIA headquarters. It deals with misunderstanding, misconception, miscommunication and misidentification. All things that our CIA is none too familiar with. There is a love triangle…err square… err some sort of geometric shape with a lot of sides. Add in some personal trainers, a children’s book author, a divorce lawyer, a washed-up analyst, a retired bodyguard, a pediatrician, some paranoia, the Russian consulate, an online dating site, a gun, some memoirs and a hatchet, pour in the best character writing of this decade and you get what I like to call a guilty pleasure.
I would recommend this film to any of my friends, especially if they have been fans of some of the other Coen Brother’s films. As to my enemies… I recommend White Chicks.
-Gabe
“Report back to me when… it makes sense.”