HEFE'S REVIEW OF:
BURN AFTER READING (2008)

OPENING THOUGHTS

    I was really excited to see this movie, some might say I was too excited. I was so sure that I would like this movie, that frankly the thought never occurred to me that this movie might not be perfect. I mean with the cast of this movie being directed by the Coens how could this movie go wrong? Well, in some ways the movie was excellent, but maybe it was high expectations or maybe it's just a genuine fact, that this movie ended up not being the perfect film I was hoping for.

ACTING

    FRANCES MCDORMAND was fantastic in this movie, this was probably her best role in years, and it was really interesting to see that she could play someone who is so bright an bubbly after so many years of seeing her play an uptight or depressed character. She was terrific and really got to stretch her acting legs with this role and really shows why she is one of the most talented actresses in Hollywood.
    JOHN MALKOVICH was out of control in this movie, in a good way. Normally you can count on Malkovich having a few scenes where he goes into a rage and the spit starts flying from his over-salivating mouth, but this movie had more than the average Malkovich movie has. He came across as literally bat-shit crazy, and I loved nearly every minute of his over-pronouncing screen time.
    BRAD PITT was also worth mentioning in this movie. His character was very entertaining, I have never seen him play such an intentionally stupid character, but he pulled it off brilliantly. I don't know if it was his choice to chew the gum constantly, but it certainly added something special to the character. He was the male equivalent to the Legally Blonde character, the only other difference is that Pitt is a good actor.

DIRECTION AND SCRIPT

    JOEL COEN and ETHAN COEN can always be counted on for a good story, this movie had twists and turns, and of course excellent characters. Somehow in the chaos that ensued though, this movie seemed to have a lot of moments that sagged. It was like this movie felt like it should have been moving at long at a "10"  the whole time, but the majority of the time it barely pushing "6". Standing back I could appreciate how brilliant the story itself was, and how the ending was like a comic farce of a Shakespeare tragedy, but from a straight entertainment stand-point, this movie kind of let me down a bit.

THE VERDICT

    This movie was nowhere near as good as The Big Lebowski, but at least I can confidentially say it was at least far better than Intolerable Cruelty. There were a lot of great performances that were mentioned above, and the writing at times was nothing short of brilliant. But this movie's downfall was really that it lagged in the pacing department, and I found myself losing interest, which is not a good sign when the movie is just a cat's vagina over 90 minutes long. Still, you could do much worse.
 
 

RATING: B -

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