Burn After Reading... the movie, not this post.

This took us two nights to watch, due to unforseen circumstances like my allergies kicking in from the huge oak tree that spits yellow pollen all over our house. What an interesting movie. Directed and written by Joel and Ethan Coen, (Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, O Brother Where Art Thou, Barton Fink, etc). it walked the fine line between clever, outrageous, and just goofy. The movie was cast with fully drawn characters who get mixed up naively in a plot line that is too complicated to explain right now. Like all Coen movies, half the fun is their tight dialogue, which is just as important to their characters as their costumes and set designs. It is similar to The Big Lebowski in that the main characters make idiotic choices in life that only lead to disaster, chaos, and for most- an unexpected and sometimes shocking end to their lives. The characters played by Francis McDormat, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, John Malcovich, Tilda Swinton, and even minor character Richard Jenkins are people not played as "good" or "evil" but merely bumbling humans who step into a big dog mess that they can't get out of. I personally loved John Malcovich's vehemently alcoholic ex- CIA analyst who is going through a very messy divorce from his wife. At the beginning of his story, he's in a nice suit, at the end he's a crazy frazzled drunk walking off with a shotgun wearing a robe and slippers (sound familiar?). This movie was pure entertainment, with no real moral, no real meaning, and no nice ending. Watch it with no expectations. Don't expect it to be as laugh out loud funny as The Big Lebowski. However, you can rest assured this is not "No Country for Old Men", so you don't have to grip your chair waiting for the dark angel of death to appear onscreen.