Sunday, October 5, 2008

BURN AFTER READING





Crime comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
John Malkovich: CIA analyst Osborne (Ozzie) Cox
Tilda Swinton: his wife Katie, a pediatrician
Frances McDormand: Linda Litzke, an employee at Hardbodies Fitness Center
Brad Pitt: her colleague Chad Feldheimer
George Clooney: Treasury agent Harry Pfarrer
Richard Jenkins: Ted Treffon,the manager of Hardbodies gym

REVIEW
Promoted as a “comedy thriller” it is anything but. There are several mildly amusing moments amidst a proliferation of swear words and there is absolutely nothing thrilling about it. Makes you wonder if it’s the same movie they are talking about than the one I saw?

The musical score is mostly heavy thumping bombastic percussion and often totally out of sync with what we see. Maybe we are supposed to see the humour in that?

There are some viewers who will be offended to see the machine Harry has invented. That kind of thing belongs in a pornographic movie not one for general audiences.

CLASSIFICATION
for pervasive language (they got that right: not two minutes into the film we get to hear our first f-word and there must be about a hundred more after that), some sexual content, and violence.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
 The video surveillance tape of Linda and Chad at the Russian Embassy shows the date to be May 1st but when Harry checks his cellphone the date shown is 17/9/2008, September 17th.
 When we first see the black car in Georgetown it is parked bumper to bumper with the white car behind it. After a quick shot of Harry’s reaction then back to the car it is now backing up with a space of at least 3’ still to go.
 Osborne pulls part way into the driveway and parks the car with the back end still on the sidewalk. When he comes out of the house to drive away it has neatly parked itself much closer to the wall.

P.S.
The Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, are four-time Academy Award winning American filmmakers. For more than twenty years the pair have written and directed numerous successful films, including No Country for Old Men, Fargo and many others.

P.P.S.
I cannot recall any time when I’ve seen the audience leave the theatre so quickly. As soon as the end credits appeared almost everyone stood up and started to walk out. By the time the lights came on the theatre was almost empty. Guess they couldn’t get away fast enough.

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