Burn After Reading

The demolition of classic espionage After being demoted due to his alcohol problems, Osbourne Cox, a veteran CIA analyst, decides to leave the agency and write his memoirs. The CD containing the draft of his manuscript accidentally ends up on the locker room floor of his local gym, where it is found by Linda Litzke and Chad Feldheimer, two fitness center employees who are a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Convinced they have stumbled upon top-secret state secrets, the pair decides to blackmail Cox to fund the multiple plastic surgeries Linda so desperately craves. Consequently, a monumental mess ensues. Ambition and absolute incompetence collide head-on with an implacable federal government security coordinator—a fourth character in discord who is, in turn, trapped in his own web of infidelities and paranoia. Following the delightful homage to classic romantic comedies that the Coens gifted us with "Intolerable Cruelty" five years earlier, "Burn After Reading" is one of the sharpest, most precise, and hilarious satires in their catalog. It is a masterpiece of farce that draws its genius from the profound and irrevocable idiocy of its protagonists. The Minnesota filmmakers dismantle the aura of solemnity surrounding the high-level institutional spy and blackmail thriller, delivering a microcosm where nobody knows or controls anything, yet everyone is willing to kill or die for absurd misunderstandings. If there is one thing the Coens know how to do flawlessly, it is character development. They lean on a cast that borders on perfection here, highlighting an absolutely unleashed Brad Pitt as the simple-minded Chad, and a superb Frances McDormand whose existential vacuity pulls the strings of the plot. Together, it is a symphony of chaos with an unrelenting pace, backed by Carter Burwell’s rhythmic and severe score, which deliberately contrasts with the ridiculousness of what we see on screen. The work as a whole serves as a reminder that the machinery of the world is not driven by flawless conspiracies, but by pure and simple ineptitude.