Alex Swob
Staff Writer

From the eccentric minds of the Coen Brothers (“No Country For Old Men”) comes the newly-released film “Burn After Reading,” a movie so immersed in absurdity that it deserves to be in a category all its own. Although it has been advertised as a comedy (which it is), it is one of such obscurity and randomness that if one knew nothing of the film, he would not categorize it as a comedy. 

This is due just as much, however, to the type of humor employed. The humor is dry beyond any movie of recent years making “The Office” feel like a vibrant and psychedelic swirl of colors. It is a dry, sadistic and ludicrous piece of filmmaking. Yet, because of these qualities, the satirical aspect of the film works quite well and transforms it, ironically, into a slightly charming independent movie.

The film tells the story of approximately ten characters whose lives intertwine with one another in peculiar and awkward ways, leading occasionally to humorous situations. The plot commences when Oswald Cox (played by John Malkovich, “Limbo”), a top-notch CIA agent, gets demoted from his station. Instead of accepting the demotion, he quits, deciding to dedicate his time to writing a memoir about his life in the CIA. 

However, because of unforeseen circumstances, he loses the CD of his memoir notes, as well as his financial data. Following this loss, a hilariously moronic gym worker named Chad, played by Brad Pitt (“Troy”), discovers this CD. Chad consequently misinterprets the bizarre numbers and information on the CD as top-secret CIA material and, from that point on, the film sporadically evolves into a collage of outlandish plot elements, ranging from dead bodies to love rectangles.

The structure of the plot seems to follow the same pattern of the film “Crash,” where every character ends up playing a role in another character’s life in some way or another. Unlike “Crash,” however, the film is completely unserious, not to mention the point encompassing the film is that it does not have a point. 

There are no tight ends at the completion of the film. There are no redeeming values. There is no emotion — people die, have affairs and kill each other — and in the end, it doesn’t matter. Nothing changes. 

But, that is precisely how the film was meant to be. The Coen brothers even subtly ridicule their own irrational film in the final scene of the movie. 

The film is a jumble of crazy characters, outlandish situations and ridiculous consequences. The only message of the film is that human existence, and life in general, is a random moshpot of nothingness. The film challenges viewers to realize the absurdity of human existence and, therefore, relax and enjoy this preposterous film.

One negative aspect about this film, however, is that it is not extremely funny, which is ironic considering that it is supposed to be a comedy. Chad is one of the only characters that interminably provides laugh after laugh with his uproarious and idiotic nature. He ends up stealing the scenes where he’s present.

However, considering that Pitts’ character only has about 30 minutes of screen time, the rest of the film is only mildly amusing. 

Anyone expecting the film to be a laugh-out-loud comedy will be sorely mistaken, although it is simple and charming. Therefore, instead of coming out laughing their heads off, viewers will instead walk out of the theater quite confused. And they may say to themselves, “I have No idea what to make of this movie.” 

Although the film is pointless, it is still a fun and high-quality movie. The script is quite clever. The actors, ranging from George Clooney to Brad Pitt, are fabulous. And, the characters are so unique and well developed that the audience starts loving and hating them right off the bat. Therefore, despite some the film’s unconventional and nonsensical nature, the movie still ends up being a relatively enjoyable quirky comedy.

09-25-2008