To try to stick "Burn After Reading" into a genre is absolutely impossible. One could call it a comedy, as IMDB.com does, but I think this label does the movie a disservice. Don't get me wrong, you will laugh your head off, but you will also question yourself for laughing at each character's rather depressing life. It's really not a drama, a romance or even a political satire. Rather, the movie transcends genre and focuses on plot, making the style both distinctive and amazingly entertaining.
Reaching back to the beginning, writers/directors Ethan and Joel Coen take another stab at seemingly meaningless comedy. In the same sort of comedic style -though not nearly as surreal - as their cult classic "The Big Lebowski," "Burn After Reading" accomplishes the feat of making you feel like there was no point to the entire movie.
The movie essentially follows the story of a CD of CIA files belonging to recently fired analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) getting into the hands of gym workers Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt). In an ill-fated blackmailing attempt, Litzke and Feldheimer attempt to bribe Cox for money so that Litzke can get cosmetic surgery. Meanwhile, Cox's ice-queen wife, Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton), is having an affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), who, through an Internet dating service, meets Litzke to have a double affair with her, bringing the movie full circle.
The movie essentially focuses on people doing whatever it takes to get what they want, and the acting was more than phenomenal - it was believable. But from the preview, which listed each principle actor's last name as a draw, could you really expect otherwise?
Of all the performances, Brad Pitt's portrayal of the lovable doofus Chad Feldheimer was the most entertaining. Despite its stereotypical nature, it's nice to see Pitt in a role that's not the suave, attractive, incredibly smart yet charmingly funny epitome of manhood. Even further, he executes this character in the most amusing and likeable ways. Whether he's moronically dancing, making some self-assured yet unintelligent comment or laughing about somebody thinking his bike is a Schwinn, he manages to make you laugh. How can you not laugh at him with his hair poofed up and looking like a skunk with a golden strip down the middle?
I know I hit mostly on the comedic elements of the movie, but to get the full effect of the movie's genre transcendence, you really have to see it. If you need a hint, here's a one-sentence description: If "American Beauty," "Love Actually" and "Get Smart" (the TV show, not to be confused with 2008 movie abomination) somehow conceived a child together, and that child grew up, married "I Heart Huckabees" and had a child, then their child would be "Burn After Reading." It's strange but totally worth its weight in strangeness or at least the $7.50 to see it on the big screen.
