'Burn After Reading' Is Worth Your Time

By Connect2Mason Reporter Emiley Culley

The character line up in the Coen Brothers' newest film, Burn After Reading, is a montage of overdramatic pop-culture-saturated nobodies who are oblivious to most of reality, dim-wittedly running through the scenes causing more chaos by the second - keeping the audience slightly confused, yet very amused.

Frances McDormand gives a remarkable portrayal of a middle-aged lady looking to better her body - a.k.a. get plastic surgery to attract a man. Brad Pitt plays her coworker living only to work out, drink smoothies, and listen to his iPod. When the janitor finds a supposed C.I.A. file on the floor of the locker room, the two team up together to extract money from recently fired C.I.A. agent Osborne Cox (John Malkovich).

The two gym workers mistaken Cox's drunken C.I.A. memoirs as highly classified information, when Cox proves to be difficult with their attempted extraction, the duo doesn't hesitate to take the information to another agency in hopes of turning a profit.

While the other characters go on causing their own drama, seemingly following another extremely satirical parallel life. When in fact the characters are following a deeply dark line twisting in attempt to avoid the other subplot; curving into a hysterical peak when all things converge.

Malkovich knocks everyone out of the water with his hard liquor enthused pompous nothing of a C.I.A. agent. Pitt takes ridiculous to an amazing level with his ability to reduce his vocabulary, while increasing his muscle mass and idiotic quirks. Clooney, on the other hand, lacks some in his performance, showing two drastic sides of a failing womanizer.

After the plot is twisted into its hysterical knot and nothing is resolved, the C.I.A. agent in charge of the case asks, "What'd we learn?" We learned that the Coen Brothers are also capible of creating a light hearted, deeply dark comedy of death, betrayal, sex, love, and unresolved mysteries. The characters lead us to question the deeply technological and fast-paced media we live in and the effects it has on people. B+