Following the dark excellence of No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading seemed trivial. However, there are only a few filmmakers that can elevate the trivial into art. Joel and Ethan Coen are such filmmakers. The comically intricate plot starts off when Osborne Cox (played by John Malkovich) is fired from his job with little knowledge that his wife Katie (played by Tilda Swinton), is going out with a federal marshal (played by George Clooney) who is secretly married. Cox then writes his memoirs to get back at the agency and coincidentally, Chad (Brad Pitt) and Linda (Frances McDormand) finds the said memoirs on a disc and tries to get a “Samaritan tax” out of Cox. Linda plans on using the money to undergo plastic surgery for her manager Ted (Richard Jenkins) to notice her. Little did she know that Ted likes her just the way she is. While it resembles one of the Coen films namely The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading focuses more on the bizarre insecurities experienced during mid-life crisis with only Chad as the exception. Brad Pitt showcased his most hilarious role yet by portraying Chad as the person too preoccupied with other things to care about such insecurities. If The Big Lebowski presents the Coen’s original approach to film noir, Burn After Reading bears their stamp on hysterical thrillers from The Enemy of the State to The Bourne Identity.
. –Kathleen C. Fennessy