Burn After Reading (R) ***1/2

Burn After Reading is one of those movies where you come out knowing less then when you went in, but still find yourself smiling and laughing giddily when you're half a block from the theater. Linda Litske (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt) come into possession of a CD that may or may not have confidential material belonging to one Osborne Cox (John Malkovich). Osborne has recently "quit" his position as a CIA analyst and wants to write his memoirs, both for sake of reflection and personal payback. His wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) couldn't care less about him. She wants out of her marriage and make her bed with a compulsive adulterer named Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney).

While this setup sounds simple enough, knowing the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan) means they will find many a clever way to twist the plot so it will churn up the characters in the process. The Coens have always been fond of ever-complicating conflicts, like in "Blood Simple" or "The Big Lebowski". As in those films and this one, characters often find themselves at dangerous cross-purposes, setting each other up to fall, often accidently, without ever really discovery why. In "Burn", we do indeed learn the true nature of the CDs contents early on (Semi-spoiler: The contents aren't "Top Secret"), but most of the characters in the film don't. How the CD is created, and why it is created, is an expert example of how to summon a MacGuffin out of thin air (Points to Hitchcock fans who don't need the word "MacGuffin" explained).

The movie also works as a good case study for how actors (in concert with a sharp script) can create indelible performances. Each actor, main and supporting, infuses their respective character with such energy that we're afraid it will blow off the screen. Clooney plays his adulterer with unbridled zeal, making the phrase "Hi there!" funny with his delivery alone. Pitt's dumb gym trainer Chad never lets out a hint of intelligence, making his happy-go-lucky attitude somewhat charming despite his obliviousness. Malkovich's analyst, on the other hand, is shrewd, exacting and in desperate need of anger management and A.A. McDormand's "positive-thinking" gym instructor is so myopic and dedicated to achieving the perfect body that she just might be the only one to come out of this movie alive (...or barely scratched).

The Coen Brothers, who recently won Oscars for "No Country For Old Men" (a film I need to reevaluate), love to tackle farce and follow their stories to the logical endpoint instead of bailing characters out at the last second. What makes this movie so fun is how the CIA Superior and Officer (they aren't given names, but are played perfectly by J.K. Simmons and David Rasche) are left to make up the film's denouncement, and even they aren't sure what to make of it:

"What have learned here?" says Simmons' character. "I don't know," responds Rasche. "Well, let's hope we don't do it again, whatever it was."