Coens

Joel and Ethan Coen know how to delve into the American character better than any current film-makers. Their biting satire and dark, ever so dark humor is captivating as they skewer the upper midwest, (Fargo), Los Angeles (The Big Lebowski), the South, (Oh Brother, Where art Thou?) and, most recently, Inside the Belt-line, Washington DC (Burn After Reading.)

They also powerfully and beautifully brought an equally dark novel by Cormac McCarthy, "No Country for Old Men," to life in the riveting, Academy Award winning film last year.

"Burn after Reading" was, for me, the weirdest venture yet. In classic Coen fashion, the characters are all anti-heroes, ridiculous and larger than life. The theme of the film was obvious - that the CIA and "Intelligence" are every bit as moronic and careless as the stereotypically stupid personal-trainer set at a chain gym called "Hardbodies." The other theme of the film is the rather hackneyed "everybody is sleeping with everybody, everybody is spying on everybody" idea. "Who are you? Who do you work for?! Why are you following me!" is repeated several times, by, if memory serves me correctly, several different characters.

I took this to be a critique of Washington culture in general and, of course, the Bush Administration, which forever will be remembered for its "Reign of Error" (Maureen Dowd).

There was much to like about the film, no doubt. It is always fun to watch real industry veterans - especially Coen veterans (Frances McDormand) at work. John Malkovitch, in my opinion, stole the show. Tilda Swinton was her cold and ornery self. George Clooney was creepily sycophantic and pathological, sleeping with all the female characters and caught in his own web of deception.

Brad Pitt was miscast as the dumb jock. He's good enough, but I found his character to be expendable. So did the Coens, who offed him 2/3rds into the film.

Missing were the superb performances from Fargo, the Fellini-esque fantasy from Lebowski, and the sublime visual presentation from "Oh Brother" and "No Country."

All in all, I found this film to be less funny than just mean. Nothing is resolved - perhaps that was the point - but I don't like the Coens as much when they poke fun at everyone, including the viewers. Frances McDormand's performance as an aging gym-bunny who only wants money for some plastic surgery so she can attract better online dates is a bit mean-spirited, is it not? And the sub-plot with the Russians is simply silly.

The Coens still present a better film than the vast majority of the crud released these days. But after a string of superb, this one was a bit of a letdown.

JL