What We're Watching

Following up the Oscar-winner No Country For Old Men with this caper is like watching an undertaker doing the can-can at Butlins.

It's more or less a complete break from the jagged bleakness of the last Coen Brothers effort, as the boys let their hair down with a screwball snowball of gurning and giggles.

That's not to diminish the effect of either film, of course. No Country deserved an Oscar, wowing audiences with its gripping darkness and melancholy characterisation. And Burn After Reading is closer to the early crack-pot Coens seen in The Big Lebowski.

Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand play two idiotic gym staffers who discover a disc containing the memoirs of a former CIA agent, and decide to use it to extort money.

While it's not quite up there with Lebowski and the Coens' other finest hours, Pitt, McDormand, George Clooney and Tilda Swinton slap on the goofy masks enough to provide a good hour or two of film entertainment.

There's even a subtle sprinkle of satire in there about the ever-famous Weapons of Mass Destruction, but the film feels happier acting silly than acting smart.
John Hill