Burn after Reading film review

Review

Cast & crew

Burn after Reading

(2008)

This crime caper from the Coen brothers highlights their talent for blending sophistication and silliness. John Malkovich gets the chance to go totally over the top as Osborne Cox, an indignant, heavy-drinking CIA veteran who begins writing an unauthorised memoir after he's fired. When the computer disc containing his book is mislaid at a gym, fitness instructor Chad (Brad Pitt) and his frumpy colleague Linda (Frances McDormand) seek to profit with a half-baked blackmail scheme. This is the springboard for many madcap cloak-and-dagger antics, which also involve Cox's wife Katie (a hard-nosed Tilda Swinton) and her lover Harry, a federal marshal played by George Clooney. It's a brilliant performance from Clooney, who plays Harry as a vainglorious twit, echoing his previous turns in the Coens' O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty. The plot is overly complicated and rather ridiculous, but therein lies the fun. After all the philosophising over their Oscar-laden No Country for Old Men (2007), it's as though the Coens are now inviting us to lighten up. SP

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Running time

91min

Country of origin

US / UK / Fr

Genre

Black comedy Crime Drama

Original language

English

Screenplay

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Theatrical distributor

Universal

UK cinema certificate

UK cinema release date

October 2008




awards information


	Award	Category	Name	Nominee/Winner

	British Academy Film Awards 2008	Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role	Brad Pitt	Nominee
	British Academy Film Awards 2008	Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role	Tilda Swinton	Nominee
	British Academy Film Awards 2008	Best Screenplay (Original)	Ethan Coen	Nominee
	British Academy Film Awards 2008	Best Screenplay (Original)	Joel Coen	Nominee
	Golden Globe 2008	Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical	Tim Bevan	Nominee
	Golden Globe 2008	Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical	Eric Fellner	Nominee
	Golden Globe 2008	Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical	Ethan Coen	Nominee
	Golden Globe 2008	Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical	Joel Coen	Nominee
	Golden Globe 2008	Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical	Frances McDormand	Nominee