Coen Brothers Caper

So I did indeed make it to Burn After Reading on Sunday morning (it's only $6 before noon). Dustin Hoffman may have been there as well - at least I saw him shuffling around the lobby before the show.

The movie certainly had its entertaining moments, particularly in my view, the performance of Brad Pitt as a clueless gym trainer. His consistently dumbfounded expression perfectly matched the clueless-sounding delivery of his line - it was the one character that kept me laughing. I also enjoyed John Malkovich's angry ex-CIA analyst although his schtick got a bit repetitive by the end. Honorable mention to George Clooney although I couldn't help but feel that he had his "Coen Brothers face" on for the film - the same one he has used in O Brother Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty. It's a very funny face but a bit tired.

The story took its way down some twists and turns, some of which were completely unnecessary. I know the Coen Brothers can be very violent, even in their comedies (Fargo) but there was a bit too much violence for this kind of a film. I won't give any plot points away but there are some things that seem to just drop out of nowhere. They are all neatly and humorously summed up by David Raasche and J.K. Simmons though so I still walked out laughing. All in all, not the Coen Brothers best film but there are certainly worse ways to spend an hour and a half, particularly for $6.