BURN AFTER READING

Genre: Comedy
Rating: 4/5 stars

PLOT

"Burn After Reading" is a roller coaster ride of a film; it's full of twists and turns and you never know what to expect next. The plot is based on, in a nutshell, a huge misunderstanding. A CIA spook (John Malkovich) is in the process of leaving his job and after finishing his memoires, leaves them stored on a CD in a local gym by accident. The files are later found by one of the employees at the gym (Brad Pitt) who later discusses with the owner of the gym (Frances McDormand) what to do with the files. After learning the identity of the author of the files, they decide to try and blackmail the former CIA spook (John Malkovich) so they can get some cash for the CD, as well as find a buyer for the files, although unbenownst to them they are actually useless. A CIA superior (Gearge Clooney) hears of this after they try to sell the files to the Russian embassy, but has no idea what to do about the situation or what to make of it. Coincedentally, he also begins dating the owner of the gym (Frances McDormand), not knowing that she possesses the files he is searching for. Meanwhile, the former CIA spook (John Malkovich) is going insane trying to get his memoires back from the gym duo. Nobody knows what anybody is after.

ACTING

The performances displayed by both Pitt and Clooney are the two things that make this movie a must-see. Altough the plot is completely ridiculous and confusing, these two make it believable. Brad Pitt really goes back to his roots and puts on a totally wacky and geeky act to provide some comic relief which is much needed, while Clooney's emotion and intensity keep you watching and laughing. Clooney's performance also makes it a lot easier viewers to believe and understand the situation. John Malkovich is hilarious as well, and you'll swear he's crazy when you see all of the stuff he does in the film. I won't spoil any of them though......

CINEMATOGRAPHY / SPECIAL EFFECTS

There were hardly any special effects used in this film as it was primarily based on plot and charaters. However, the cinematography really added to the humour of the film. The way the shots were done during some of the comedic parts really added to the humour of them and definetely got some extra laughs out of me then a normal shot would have. *SPOILER ALERT* The part where Brad Pitt looks up with a big smile on his face at George Clooney after he finds him hiding in the closet is hilarious, but sadly George Clooney shoots Brad Pitt in the head and that's the last you see of him in the film. It was a great scene, but it kind of sucked seeing him get picked off like halfway through the film but once the plot wraps up it's pretty funny.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, "Burn After Reading" was a pretty good movie with a lot of confusing parts, but great laughs all around. You need to see it with more than one person so that you can talk about it afterwards and piece together the parts that you didn't get in the movie. That'll help you understand it a lot better. In my opinion, it's definetely one of the best films of the year and a must-see.