Burn After Reading

Burn After Reading is not a good film. Despite being directed by the Oscar winning Coen brothers. Despite starring 3 Oscar winning actors in Clooney, Swinton and McDormund. Despite starring Oscar nominated actors in Malkovich and Pitt, Burn After Reading is not a good film.

This is ill-conceived, badly executed and a complete waste of everyone's considerable talents. You almost wonder whether the Coens decided to see if they could dupe audiences into liking something so awful. It plays as if they wrote it on the back of a napkin in a bar one evening - possibly whilst drunkenly celebrating last year's deserved Oscar success. No idea is dismissed as too stupid. No joke is seen as too unfunny. No plot thread is left tied up. What we have is a mish-mash of semi-formed ideas all thrown together with the unifying theme of isn't it funny when these great actors play idiots. Well, frankly, no it isn't.

I have no problem with their "lighter" stuff. After last year's outstanding No Country for Old Men, it was only right that they change pace dramatically, and they've had proven success with this sort of thing. O Brother went down very well, so did The Big Lebowski. For me their most successful foray into light comedy was the grossly under appreciated Intolerable Cruelty. It had a genuine wit throughout with wonderful set ups, charming performances, hilarious visual gags and terrific one liners. Everything in fact lacking in Burn After Reading.

This may get a pass or even a recommendation based on the talent involved but don't be fooled by anyone that tells you this is anything better than average. For my money it is significantly worse. The Coens have followed up their very best film with their very worst*. A real shame.

C-


*Worth pointing out I've seen all their films except The Ladykillers which got slated so may in fact be worse than this. If I'm completely honest I also probably just preferred Fargo to No Country for Old Men.

What They're Up To Next

With the Oscars now well and truly behind us, and some analysts looking forward to next year's race (Reservation Road is my tip), MyFilmVault are looking at where are lucky Oscar winners are headed next. Obviously we expect all readers to ensure they've seen their Oscar winning work first...

The Coens (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay)

Burn After Reading

On my top 10 Most anticipated for 2008, this sees the Coens back in the comedy game with George Clooney cast alongside Brad Pitt. Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormund and John Malkovich complete an impressive cast. Critics will be worried that this sees the Coens return the lighter and not altogether successful fare of the likes of Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. I happen to be a big fan of the former though and Clooney is of course a living legend so I can't see any potential pitfalls. Now watch it bomb.

Daniel Day Lewis (Best Actor)

Ruining my column (selfish) Daniel Day Lewis is rather choosy about his projects having made just 3 films since the turn of the millennium. He is well known for other, often quirky, interests and may well put his feet up at least in the acting sense for a while before committing to another picture.

Marion Cotillard (Best Actress)

Public Enemies

Rather excitingly, Cotillard has been cast in this Michael Mann's project. Unsurprisingly (for Mann), Public Enemies is listed on IMDb as a crime/drama which tells us little, but costars Christian Bale and Johnny Depp tell us quite a lot more. Both have a pretty good track record with their choices (the horrible Pirates of the Caribbean sequels notwithstanding) and, although Mann can be hit and miss, his films are always ones to keep an eye on.


Javier Bardem (Best Supporting Actor)

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

This looks a little dicey. Not only does it have the worst title in recent memory, it's a Woody Allen film which these days can mean anything from brilliant (Match Point), to distinctly average (Scoop) although I think it is fair to say his latest films are more the latter. Bardem stars alongside Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz so all may not be lost but I fear this one may be one to avoid.


Tilda Swinton (Best Supporting Actress)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Limits of Control

We'll gloss over the Narnia sequel (zzzzzzzzzzzz) and ignore what seems to be a supporting turn that she's set to deliver in the aforementioned Burn After Reading and focus on two very exciting looking projects. The first is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - another film on my 2008 preview. It's David Fincher's new one and stars Brad Pitt as a man who ages backwards. Fincher rarely puts a foot wrong and this is being talked up as one to look out for. Her other project is The Limits of Control which perhaps sounds even more exciting. Slated as a 2009 release, Jim Jarmusch tackles a (according to IMDb) crime/drama/thriller. I loved Jarmusch's Broken Flowers and it'll be really interesting to see him take on a completely different genre. It also features an unvbelievably great cast as well, with Bill Murray, John Hurt and Gael Garcia Bernal joining Swinton, which I dare say is even more exciting than the pant-wettingly exciting ensembles listed above.

Oscar Reaction

Little late with this but...

The Good:

Tilda Switon winning Best Supporting Actress. Good speech too.

Javier Bardem showing a lot of class whilst accepting Best Supporting Actor. I prefered Casey Affleck but I'm not complaining at all about Bardem's win at all since he was outstanding.

Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen 'filling in' for Halle Berry and Judi Dench. That bit was funnier than anything Jon Stewart managed, aside from the pretend snide 'so arrogant' remark about Glen Hansard's Best Song win.

Marion Cotillard showing how much she cared about her Best Actress win but not breaking down in hysterics a la Halle Berry.

The Bad:

Why invite The Rock aka Dwayne Johnson to present an Oscar? Rubbish.

Why invite some girl no-one's ever heard of to present an Oscar? Double rubbish.

Me correctly predicting an upset in Best Actress but picking the wrong upsetter. I went for Ellen Page but Marion Cotillard got it. I actually predicted she'd win just before it was read out but too late to count.

Jon Stewart as host. Not bad per se but just not in the league of Steve Martin who anyone with taste must recognise as easily the best host of recent years.

The Ugly:

The cinematographer Roger Deakins has been nominated 7 times in his career. He's yet to win. He was nominated twice on Sunday and still couldn't win. His The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford work was the best of the year. How on earth was he snubbed yet again? This was a complete travesty. When Robert Elswit's name was read out Deakins just nodded as if to say "thought so". The man's cursed.

Michael Clayton

This hotly anticipated (at least by me) legal thriller from debutant Tony Gilory, the writer of the Bourne films, pitches 3 actors with 5 Movie Years nominations between them. 3 of those are for the brilliant Tom Wilkinson, who costars in this as the corporate lawyer who goes off his meds and starts having a nervous breakdown. This is not good news for the company that he's representing, UNorth, headed by Tilda Swinton, who are in the middle of a 6 year, 3 billion dollar lawsuit, and probably even worse news for the law firm Wilkinson works for, whose 9 million that UNorth owe is now in jeopardy, not to mention a possible merger with a London firm and all credibility in their own country.

The law firm needs someone to save the day and that someone is Michael Clayton, played by George Clooney, the business's "fixer". Clooney's Clayton is a very interesting character, someone entrusted with fixing very delicate, often high profile situations, but a guy who's own life seems to be in need of fixing itself. He owes 80,000 to people he can't pay after a failed restaurant venture, he's separated from his wife and has a gambling problem that at least partly explains his cashflow troubles. It's refreshing to see a 'hero' as troubled, although this wont be the first time in a review this year that I have praised the efforts of the writers of The Good Shepherd, Zodiac and Breach, who have also brought us screen characters that are layered and interesting. It's been a great year for intelligent thrillers and this continues that pleasing trend.

Clooney is wonderful and totally convincing as Clayton. He enjoys several great scenes throughout the film, 2 notable ones with Wilkinson, and 1 with Swinton that is as satisfying a scene as you'll see all year. The credits roll over a fixed shot of Clooney in a cab and holds on Clooney for a good 3 or 4 minutes. Even here, doing so little, Clooney is totally magnetic as a screen presence that despite the credits rolling on a packed Saturday night, not one person left the theatre until we faded to black.

Wilkinson and Swinton provide more than able support. If I did have a criticism, I'd say it was perhaps too short. At a fraction under 2 hours, I think we could have spent another 20 minutes with these characters, particularly the two Brits who don't get as much screen time as I'd have liked. But it is hard to argue with Gilroy's decision to spend nearly every second with Clooney. It's an intelligent script and wonderfully directed debut effort, which is certainly worth your time and money.

A-