Sunday, October 05, 2008

At the Movies: Burn After Reading

Last night, Mrs. Lawhawk and I decided to make it a date night, and went to see a movie. Arriving at Garden State Plaza, there weren't many choices, but we decided upon Burn After Reading, a movie by the Coen brothers.

There's no spoilers in here, so read away. I'll let you discover the plot and the twists for yourself.

I'm a fan of the Coen Brothers' Raising Arizona, so I get their twisted humor. We weren't disappointed. There were laughs throughout at the absurdity of the situations facing all the characters. Brad Pitt should do comedy more often, John Malkovich is just awesome, and Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton were great. Even George Clooney did a good job essentially playing himself - a womanizing guy who surfs the 'net for love, even though he's married and has a couple of unusual habits.

And I got a kick out of the fact that did the filming of the gym scenes not too far from where I live.

The film is littered with cursing, but most of the time it's wholly appropriate to the scene - after all, it's what most of us would do facing the situations that these characters faced. There's a little violence, but how it gets explained makes it work.

In fact, some of the biggest laughs result from how the violence gets explained away.

I give it 3 out of 4 stars.

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