A few days
ago I saw a clip from the Coen brothers movie;
Burn After Reading (2008). I thought it looked pretty good, so I sat
down and watched it.
The
cast is well loaded with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances
McDormand, John Malkovich and more, so no problem there.
Being
a Coen film, it is very well made. It is absolutely beautiful on all
fronts. But where I think it fails is in the balance.
On
the surface it's a comedy, but it also tries to be a crime film with
strong elements of relationship drama. And in my opinion it kind of
fails to be any of those. Many scenes that I guess were ment to be
funny felt more tragic, but to be fair there were some genuinely
funny moments. I suppose I'd say it felt fragmented and chaotic when
it wasn't supposed to be. It's hard to explain.
Now
I've seen several Coen brothers films before; Millers Crossing,
Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men to name a few, and
they always leave me feeling conflicted. I've never finished one of
their films and thought to myself Now
that was a great movie.
Never. Some times it's taken a few days to digest the film in order
to “get it”, other times it's taken a second viewing to
understand it. They don't make easy movies, that's for sure.
Even
though I might have gotten
the films, I've not always liked them. I like Millers Crossing and
Fargo but I don't like Lebowski and No Country. (I'm about to get
stoned soon, I know). Burn after reading is in the second category
more than the first. I liked a few of the scenes, but over all the
movie depressed me. Particularly since the one character I really
felt deserved a comeuppance didn't get one. I won't say more than
that. You might feel differently.
Should
you watch this film? Absolutely. It is good, I just really didn't
like it. I can even say I've never seen a movie like it, but it still
didn't appeal to me. Like American Hustle, this is a movie I can
recommend, but you are going to have to make up your own mind about.
That's
the load-out for today, so until next Monday, have great week!
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