Some things make sense, a lot others simply don’t. And often there is no telling which, what, why, or how. In Burn After Reading, two ordinary citizens find what they believe is sensitive documents, but which looks to the ordinary eye like simple financial data. They try to sell it, and end up baffling everyone in what turns out to be a “cluster f***” situation.
When CIA analyst Osbourne (John Malkovich) gets demoted for a problem that he does not appear to have, he begins to write his memoir. Chad (Brad Pitt) and Linda (Frances McDormand) finds a CD with names and numbers, and immediately calls up the CIA guy. But instead of a bag of cash, he receives a socking punch. So, the duo approaches the Russian embassy with their ‘classified document’.
John Malkovich snarls. He’s a no-nonsense fellow possessing zero tolerance for morons and people politics, and the demeanor of a violent army general. His character gets thrown out of his official work quite possibly for not “kissing someone’s ass”. He’s the rare kind of fellow who can have you roll with laughter while he’s brandishing a weapon and swearing furiously, eyes blazing like a psychopath.
Brad Pitt is a gum-chewing chilled out fellow with a broad smile and a happy disposition. When his character’s nose is bloodied and he puts on a cry-baby face, it cracks you up. Frances approaches the sexual act in a very practical manner. George Clooney, as a man who’s sleeping around with lots of women, has moods that keep changing: one moment, he’s violent; in another, he’s comical; and in yet another, he’s both violent and comical.
The script and characters by the legendary brothers are a laugh riot. Just when your sides are beginning to split, though, someone takes a gun and shoots someone in the face, or someone grabs an axe and starts hacking someone to death; weird mix: these blood and humor bits.
None of the characters in this offbeat black comedy has a clear idea of what exactly is going on. This possibly is Ethan and Joel Coen’s way of informing us that a heck lot of things around us are truly fuzzy. Even the CIA director shakes his head, finally, and philosophizes, “What do we learn? I don’t know. I guess we learn not to do it again. And I’m f***** if I know what we did”.
