Burn After Reading - 2008

Intelligence is relative

Even though many reviewers named the Coen brothers last film 'No Country for Old Men' as the classic of the decade I am tempted to go in the opposite direction and say that ' Burn After Reading' is the classic. In short it is near perfection as a movie. The comedy is bleak and dark while the star studded cast intertwine with each other as effortlessly as is possible. John Malkovich and George Clooney are firm favourites of mine in the acting world, always choosing unique and obscure parts. Frances McDormand is also a highlight here as the neurotic and emotionally insecure gym instructor who constantly dreams of getting plastic surgery. Brad Pitt also steals the screen as her hyperactive fellow colleague who along with McDormand finds a disc of Malkovich's memoirs and, believing it to be a foreign document of the Russian government tries (unsuccessfully) to blackmail him into paying out a large amount of money. The film works so well because of the storyline, the type that in reality you could actually invision happening. The case of mistaken identity usually works well in movies and this is not much different, being a case of a mistaken object. A brilliantly crafted and well acted movie which incorporates so fantastic actors.

Rating 4.5/5