Burn After Reading

Infobox_film
name = Burn After Reading


image_size = 215px
caption = International poster for "Burn After Reading"
director = Joel Coen
Ethan Coen
producer = Joel Coen
Ethan Coen
writer = Joel Coen
Ethan Coen
starring = John Malkovich
George Clooney
Frances McDormand
Tilda Swinton
Brad Pitt
music = Carter Burwell
cinematography = Emmanuel Lubezki
distributor = Focus Features
Working Title Films
Alliance Films
released = United States:
September 12, 2008
United Kingdom:
October 17, 2008
runtime = 96 min.
country = UK/US
language = English
budget = $37 million
gross = $51,641,000
imdb_id = 0887883
website = http://www.burnafterreading.com--live.com/#/home

"Burn After Reading" is a 2008 dark comedyCarpenter, Cassie. [http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/features/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003700448 "Fire and ice queen."] "Back Stage", January 23, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-09-09.] film written, produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars John Malkovich, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt. It was released in the USA on September 12, 2008 and will be released on October 17, 2008 in the UK. The R-rated film had its premiere on August 27, 2008 when it opened the 2008 Venice Film Festival. [cite web|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/28/ap/entertainment/main4049219.shtml|title=Coen Brothers Film To Open This Year's Venice Film Festival|publisher=CBSnews.com|accessdate=April 28|accessyear=2008] The film is the brothers' first to follow their Academy Award winning Best Picture, "No Country for Old Men".

Plot

Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) is a CIA analyst who quits his job at the agency after being demoted ostensibly because of his drinking problem. He then decides to write a memoir about his life in the CIA. His wife, pediatrician Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton), wants to divorce Osbourne and, at the counsel of her divorce lawyer, she copies many of his personal and financial files off his computer and onto an optical disc. Katie's divorce lawyer's receptionist accidentally leaves the disc at Hardbodies, a workout gym. An employee of the gym, Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) obtains the disc from the gym's custodian and ascertains that it contains classified government information. Along with his fellow employee Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), he intends to use the disk to blackmail Osbourne; Linda wants the money to pay for cosmetic surgery. They call up Cox in the middle of the night, but he is not receptive. When blackmailing him fails, Linda decides to take the information to the Russian embassy. At the embassy, she hands the disk over to the Russians, promising that she will give more information afterwards. Because Linda and Chad don't have any more information, they decide to break into Cox's house.

Katie's lover is Treasury agent Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), who by chance meets Linda online and begins dating her as well. Chad stakes out the Coxes' house and breaks in when Harry and Katie leave. Harry, however, comes back, finds Chad, and accidentally shoots him in the face. Harry, thinking that Chad was a spy due to his lack of documentation, disposes of the body. Days later, his paranoia increasing after murdering Chad, Harry leaves the Cox residence after a fight with Katie. On his way to leave he manages to tackle a man who has been trailing him for some time, thinking he was working for the CIA or some other government agency. After tackling him, Harry finds out that the man is working for a divorce firm hired by his wife who, it is later revealed, has been cheating on him as well. Harry is devastated and goes to see an agitated Linda who confides in Harry that her friend Chad is missing; he agrees to try to help. The next morning, Harry and Linda meet in a park and she provides him with more information about Chad's disappearance. When he realizes that Chad is the man he killed, he becomes paranoid and flees in terror, assuming that Linda is also a spy.

Osbourne had previously returned to his home only to find that Katie changed the locks as part of her preparations for divorce proceedings. He sleeps overnight in his boat, and the next day breaks into his own house with a hatchet. There he finds Ted Treffon (Richard Jenkins), the manager of Hardbodies, rifling through his computer looking for personal information. Due to his feelings for Linda, Ted decided to look for more information to give to the Russians, believing that the Russians had kidnapped Chad. Osbourne shoots Ted, who survives and runs out of the house. Osbourne grabs the hatchet and kills Ted in broad daylight.

The movie ends by returning to the CIA's headquarters, where an official (David Rasche) and his director (J.K. Simmons) are trying to sort out what happened: Chad is dead, Ted is dead, Osbourne is in a vegetative state and dying after being shot by an agent while attacking Ted, Harry has been arrested trying to board a flight to Venezuela (but the CIA wants to let him leave anyway so he's out of their hair), and Linda has agreed to cooperate in exchange for the CIA financing her plastic surgery. The baffled CIA agents then decide that they have learned their lesson: to never repeat whatever it is that they did in this case; though they are still not clear what it is they did.

Cast

*John Malkovich as Osbourne Coxcite web|url=http://www.workingtitlefilms.co.uk/filmCastCrew.php?filmID=112|title=Burn After Reading Cast and crew|publisher=Workingtitle.com|accessdaymonth=07 January|accessyear=2008]
*Frances McDormand as Linda Litzke
*Brad Pitt as Chad Feldheimer
*George Clooney as Harry Pfarrer
*Tilda Swinton as Katie Cox
*Richard Jenkins as Ted Treffon
*Elizabeth Marvel as Sandy Pfarrer
*David Rasche as CIA Officer
*J. K. Simmons as CIA Superior
*Devin Rumer as Surveilance

Production

Working Title Films produced the film for Focus Features, which also has worldwide distribution rights. [http://www.clooneystudio.com/articles2007/production_begins_burnafterreading.html "Production begins on "Burn After Reading"."] "NBC Universal" press release, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-09-09.]

"Burn After Reading" was the first Coen brothers movie since "Miller's Crossing" not to use Roger Deakins as cinematographer. Emmanuel Lubezki, the four-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer of "Sleepy Hollow" and "Children of Men", took over for Deakins."Burn After Reading": The Coens go back to their kooky roots." "Empire", December, 2007, pg. 30.] Mary Zophres served as costume designer, marking her eighth consecutive movie with the Coen brothers. Carter Burwell, a composer who worked with the Coens in 11 previous films, created the score for "Burn After Reading". Early in the production, Burwell and the Coens decided the score should include a great deal of percussion instruments, which the filmmakers felt would match the deluded self-importance the characters felt about themselves. In creating the score, they discussed the political thriller "Seven Days in May", which included an all-drums score; the "Burn" score consisted of a great deal of Japanese Taiko drums. Joel Coen said they wanted the score to be "something big and bombastic, something important sounding but absolutely meaningless."Kelly, Kevin. [http://blog.spout.com/2008/09/11/the-coen-brothers-interview-burn-after-reading-toronto-2008/ "The Coen Brothers, "Burn After Reading", Toronto 2008."] " [http://blog.spout.com SpoutBlog] ", September 11, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-09-12.]

"Burn After Reading" is the first original screenplay penned by Joel and Ethan Coen since their 2001 movie, "The Man Who Wasn't There". [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article4618799.ece "Burn After Reading" review."] "The Times", August 27, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-09-04.] Ethan Coen compared "Burn After Reading" to the Allen Drury political novel "Advise and Consent" and called it "our version of a Tony Scott/Jason Bourne kind of movie, without the explosions."Wloszczyna, Susan. [http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2008-08-28-coen-brothers_N.htm "Fall movie preview: Coens dumb it down with '"Burn"'."] "USA Today", September 2, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-09-10.] Joel Coen said they intended to create a spy movie because "we hadn't done one before,"Barry, Colleen. [http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/liveit/article/399116 "Burn After Reading" debuts in Venice."] "Associated Press", August 28, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-09-09.] but he feels the final result was more of a character-driven movie than a spy story. Joel also said "Burn After Reading" was not meant to be a comment or satire on Washington D.C.

Parts of the "Burn" screenplay were written while the Coens were also writing their adaptation of "No Country for Old Men". The Coens created characters with actors George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich and Richard Jenkins in mind for the parts, and the script derived from the brothers' desire to include them into a "fun story."Fernandez, Jay A. [http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/21/entertainment/et-scriptland21 "Strikers’ dilemma: to write or not."] "Los Angeles Times", November 21, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-09-09.] Ethan Coen said Pitt's character was partially inspired by a botched hair coloring job from a commercial the actor filmed.Covert, Colin. [http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/11551181.html "Q&A: Coens return to old 'Country.'"] "Star Tribune", November 8, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-09-09.] Tilda Swinton, who was cast later than the rest of the cast, was one of the only major actors whose character was not written specifically for her. The Coens struggled to develop a common filming schedule among the A-list cast. [Morrison, Alan. [http://img517.imageshack.us/my.php?
] "Empire", January, 2008, pg. 183.]

"Production Weekly", an online entertainment industry magazine, falsely reported in October 2006 that "Burn After Reading" was a loose adaptation of "Burn Before Reading: Presidents, CIA Directors, and Secret Intelligence", a memoir by former U.S. Director of Central Intelligence Stansfield Turner. [ [http://www.filmwad.com/clooney-ignites-coen-bros-reunion-1202-p.html "Clooney ignites Coen bros. reunion."] " [http://productionweekly.com/ Production Weekly] ", October 22, 2006. Retrieved on 2008-09-09.] Although both stories involve the Central Intelligence Agency and derive their titles from the top secret classification term, the Coen brothers script has nothing to do with the Turner book; nevertheless, the rumor was not clarified until a "Los Angeles Times" article more than one year later.

Principal filming took place around Brooklyn Heights, as the Coens wanted to stay in New York City to be with their families. [ [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20035285_20035331_20041613_6,00.html Fun With George and Brad] , accessed June 9, 2007] Other scenes were filmed at Paramus, New Jersey, Westchester County, New York and Washington, D.C. Filming began on August 27, 2007 and was completed on October 30, .]

The Coen brothers said idiocy was a major central theme of "Burn After Reading"; Joel Coen said he and his brother have "a long history of writing parts for idiotic characters" and described Clooney and Pitt's characters as "dueling idiots." "Burn After Reading" is the third Coen brothers film for Clooney ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Intolerable Cruelty"), who acknowledged that he usually plays a fool in their movies: "I've done three films with them and they call it my trilogy of idiots." Joel said after the last scene was shot, "George said: 'OK, I’ve played my last idiot!' So I guess he won’t be working with us again." [http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Film-Review/burn-after-reading-preview "Burn After Reading - Preview."] " [http://www.indielondon.co.uk IndieLondon,] " October, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-09-04.] Pitt, who plays a particularly unintelligent character in "Burn After Reading", said of his role, "After reading the part, which they said was hand-written for myself, I was not sure if I should be flattered or insulted." Pitt also said when he was shown the script, he told the Coens he did not know how to play the part because the character was such an idiot: "There was a pause and then Joel goes...'You'll be fine.'"

During a fall movie preview, "Entertainment Weekly" wrote John Malkovich "easily racks up the most laughs"Karger, Dave. "Fall Movie Summer Preview, September: Burn After Reading." "Entertainment Weekly", Iss. #1007/1008, August 22/29, 2008, pg. 47.] among the cast as the foul-mouthed ex-CIA man. The first scene Malkovich performed was a phone call in which he shouts several obscenities at Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand. But Malkovich could not be on the sound stage for the call because he was rehearsing a play, so he called in the lines from his apartment in Paris. Regarding the scene, Malkovich said, "It was really late at night and I was screaming at the top of my lungs. God knows what the neighbors thought." Tilda Swinton plays Malkovich's wife who engages in an affair with George Clooney, although the two characters do not get along well. Clooney's and Swinton's characters also had a poor relationship in their previous film together, "Michael Clayton", prompting Clooney to say to Swinton at the end of a shoot, "Well, maybe one day we'll get to make a film together when we say one nice thing to each other." Swinton said of the dynamic, "I'm very happy to shout at him on screen. It's great fun."

Swinton described "Burn After Reading" as "a kind of monster caper movie," and said of the characters, "All of us are monsters – like, true monsters. It’s ridiculous." She also said, "I think there is something random at the heart of this one. On the one hand, it really is bleak and scary. On the other, it is really funny. ... It's the whatever-ness of it. You feel that at any minute of any day in any town, this could happen." Malkovich said of the characters, "No one in this film is very good. They're either slightly emotional or mentally defective. Quirky, self-aggrandizing, scheming." Pitt said the cast did little ad-libbing because the script was so tightly written and wove so many overlapping stories together. Richard Jenkins said the Coen brothers asked him if he could lose weight for his role as the gym manager, to which Jenkins jokingly replied, "I'm a 60-year-old man, not Brad Pitt. My body isn't going to change." [Chi, Paul. "Richard Jenkins feels the "Burn" with Brad Pitt." "People", Vol. 70, No. 12, September 22, 2008, pg. 34.]

Joel Coen said the machine built by George Clooney's character was inspired by a machine he once saw a key grip build, and by another machine he saw in the Museum of Sex in New York City.

Reception

Critical reception

Reviews for "Burn After Reading" were generally positive, earning a 79% freshness rating at "Rotten Tomatoes" based on 147 reviews as of September 15, 2008. [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/burn_after_reading/ "Burn After Reading" (2008)."] "Rotten Tomatoes". Retrieved on 2008-09-20.] The film fared worse among "Top Critics," earning a 56% freshness rating out of 36 reviews. [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/burn_after_reading/?critic=creamcrop "Burn After Reading" (2008) - 'Top Critics.'"] "Rotten Tomatoes". Retrieved on 2008-09-15.] "The Times", which gave the movie four out of five stars, compared it to Coen films "Raising Arizona" and "Fargo" in its "savagely comic taste for creative violence and a slightly mocking eye for detail." The review said the attention to detail was so impeccable that "the Coens can even raise a laugh with something as simple as a well-placed photograph of Vladimir Putin," and complimented Carter Burwell's musical score, which it described as "the most paranoid piece of film music since Quincy Jones's neurotic soundtrack for "The Anderson Tapes"." Andrew Pulver, film reviewer for "The Guardian" called the movie "a tightly wound, slickly plotted spy comedy that couldn't be in bigger contrast to the Coens' last film, the bloodsoaked, brooding "No Country for Old Men"."Pulver, Andrew. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/aug/27/venicefilmfestival.coenbrothers1 "A tightly wound triumph."] "The Guardian", August 27, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-09-04.] Pulver, who also gave "Burn After Reading" four out of five stars, said it "may also go down as arguably the Coens' happiest engagement with the demands of the Hollywood A-list." Pulver said Brad Pitt had some of the funniest moments and that compared to the other Coen brothers movies, "Burn After Reading" most resembles "Intolerable Cruelty". "The Hollywood Reporter" reviewer Kirk Honeycutt complimented the actors for making fun of their screen personae, and said the Coen brothers "have taken some of cinema's top and most expensive actors and chucked them into "Looney Tunes" roles in a thriller."Honeycutt, Kirk. [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/awards_festivals/fest_reviews/article_display.jsp?JSESSIONID=nhdpL1VLywL5kZQyH8PWPZmfJ5TM1KD0KTpJg8fzwnm0mBpTLvJF!329093835&&rid=11547 "Film Review: Burn After Reading."] "The Hollywood Reporter", August 27, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-09-09.] Honeycutt also said "it takes awhile to adjust to the rhythms and subversive humor of "Burn" because this is really an anti-spy thriller in which nothing is at stake, no one acts with intelligence and everything ends badly.

Todd McCarthy, of "Variety" magazine, wrote a strongly negative review of "Burn After Reading", which he said "tries to mate sex farce with a satire of a paranoid political thriller, with arch and ungainly results."McCarthy, Todd. [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117938083.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 "Burn After Reading" Review."] "Variety", August 27, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-09-04.] McCarthy said the talented cast was forced to act like cartoon characters, described Carter Burwell's score as "uncustomarily overbearing" and said the dialogue is "dialed up to an almost grotesquely exaggerated extent, making for a film that feels misjudged from the opening scene and thereafter only occasionally hits the right note." "Time" film critic Richard Corliss said he did not understand what the Coen brothers were attempting with the film, and after describing the plot, wrote, "I have the sinking feeling I've made "Burn After Reading" sound funnier than it is. The movie's glacial affectlessness, its remove from all these subpar schemers, left me cold and perplexed."Corliss, Richard. [http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1837730,00.html "Baffled by "Burn After Reading"."] "Time", August 31, 2008. Retrieved on 09-04.] Corliss complimented Richard Jenkins and J.K. Simmons for their brief supporting roles. David Denby of "The New Yorker" said the movie had several funny scenes, but they "are stifled by a farce plot so bleak and unfunny that it freezes your responses after about forty-five minutes."Denby, David. [http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2008/09/15/080915crci_cinema_denby "Storm Warnings: '"Burn After Reading"' and '"Trouble the Water'"."] "The New Yorker", September 15, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-09-09.] Denby also criticized the pattern of violence in the movie, in which innocent people die quickly and the guilty go unpunished. "These people don’t mean much to [the Coen brothers] ; it’s hardly a surprise that they don’t mean much to us, either. ... Even black comedy requires that the filmmakers love someone, and the mock cruelties in '"Burn After Reading"' come off as a case of terminal misanthropy."

Leah Rozen, of "People" magazine, said the characters' "unrelenting dumbness and dim-witted behavior is at first amusing and enjoyable but eventually grows wearing."Rozen, Leah. "Burn After Reading"." "People", Vol. 70, No. 12, September 22, 2008, pg. 34.] But Rozen said the performances are a redeeming factor, especially that of Pitt, who she described as a standout who "manages simultaneously to be delightfully broad and smartly nuanced."

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $19.1 million in 2,651 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office. [cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=burnafterreading.htm |title=Burn After Reading (2008) - Weekend Box Office Results |accessdate=2008-09-26 |publisher=Box Office Mojo] As of October 5, 2008, it has grossed $51.64 million in the United States and Canada. [cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=burnafterreading.htm |title=Burn After Reading (2008) |accessdate=2008-09-26 |publisher=Box Office Mojo]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.burnafterreading.com--live.com/#/home Official site]
* [http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/film.php?filmID=112 Official site] at Working Title Films
* [http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/burnafterreading/ Official Trailer] at Apple.com (red band trailer, requires iTunes due to age-restricted content)
*
*
*
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/burn_after_reading/ "Burn After Reading"] at Rotten Tomatoes
* [http://www.coenbrothers.net/ Coenesque: The Films of the Coen Brothers]
* [http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2061951,00.html "Ocean's pair set for new Coen brothers comedy"] - guardian.co.uk
* [http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/05/so_hows_the_script_for_the_coe.html "So How's the Script for the Coen Brothers' ‘Burn After Reading,’ Starring Pitt and Clooney?"] - New York Magazine
* [http://www.clooneystudio.com/movies/burn_after_reading.html Clooney Studio website production page]
* [http://www.youknow-forkids.com/burnafterreading.htm You Know, For Kids! Burn After Reading section]

Box Office Leaders USA
before= Bangkok Dangerous
date= September 14
date2=
date3=
year= 2008
after= Lakeview Terrace