I didn’t have high expectations, and I think they were met. It felt like for every choice the Coens made - from plot to dialogue to character development - they just went with the first thing that came to their heads and considered it no further. Where The Big Lebowski has an absurdly stupid plot that you barely pay attention to because the characters and dialogue are so hilarious, Burn After Reading’s characters and dialogue aren’t strong enough to support the dopey plot. It was a blandly amusing movie that I wouldn’t really recommend and certainly wouldn’t need to watch again.
And I thought it was the plot that made the movie so brilliant. There were some great individual scenes, most of which have been mentioned above. And I don’t remember any weak performances. But the plot was such a twisted set of choices, each of which made complete sense within the logic of the characters, that I felt like I was watching a french horn and trying to figure out where the music went. As haphazard as it appears, none of this could have been an accident, and still wrapped up at the end. This is the first movie I can remember where I did not even once know what was about to happen, from the opening scenes to the rolling of credits.
I look forwards to seeing this movie again, now that I know where it’s headed. Like a magic act, I want to see if I can spot the trick.
Oh, and you should have heard the theater when we finally saw what Clooney’s character was building in the basement. Mixed in with the howls of laughter were several female (and one or two male) voices of outright admiration.
This is the closest I’ve come to feeling like I’m watching a Donald Westlake book in action. And that includes the two movies that pretended to be about John Dortmunder.
Burn after Reading finally opened in Bangkok yesterday (Thursday), and the wife and I saw it today. We were very pleased with it. The wife is one of the few Thai Coen Brothers fans; Miller’s Crossing is probably her favorite, with many close seconds.
I can’t say I really cared for the Tilda Swinton character, but I have a feeling I wasn’t meant to. The “thing in the basement” – geez, I never saw that one coming! I knew beforehand there was something special in the basement and had tried to guess what it was, but THAT came completely out of left field. I liked Frances MacDormand’s reaction to it, too.
Brad Pitt was priceless.
All in all, it gets two thumbs up from us.
My lord, it’s hilarious. If the rest of the movie were crap, the final scene would redeem it.
I liked it. I agree that it’s not the best Coen brothers’ movie, but it’s better than 90% of the stuff that’s usually in the theaters. Very funny, very dark.
At the theater, I was in line behind two women who hadn’t decided what to see yet. One of them said, “Oooh, this has Brad Pitt in it! Let’s see it!” Afterward, in the bathroom, I overheard her talking to her friend: “That was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” 
Would you, or someone here, please email or PM me and let me know what the thing in the basement is?
I doubt any description could do it justice.
It’s been awhile since I saw the movie, but basically it was like a rocking stool that each time it rocked back it moved a dildo forwards towards an opportune spot.
I saw it last night (finally.) Hysterical! But then, I love the Coen-bros style and have always had a soft spot for loony but smart, off-beat dark comedies.
I love the incredulous looks whenever it was brought up that
[spoiler]She took the “secret data” to the Russians.
“The Russians? 
Why the Russians?”[/spoiler]
I don’t think this is quite up to The Big Lebowski standards, but I liked it a lot, and laughed well and often.
I loved it. But I do have one question:
How did the CIA know about Clooney’s character? They brought him up as dating McDormand immediately after they were tipped off about her by their man with the Russians, even though at that moment they know absolutely nothing about her. It seems that they already have their eye on him. But later, we see that the surveillance that’s making him so batshit paranoid is a PI working for his wife’s divorce lawyer. So what’s going on?
I’m just speculating, but the CIA might have picked up on it since they had Osbourne under surveillance.
That’s what I guessed, too.
How did this movie get rushed out to DVD so fast? It was in theatres as of Sep. 12 and had a least a few good weekends before getting toppled by other movies.
I got the DVD (and bonus shirt) yesterday and watched it with the SO… I LUVED it! The SO didnt “get it” (or just didnt like it, or both).
We watched it a few nights ago. I loved the trailers but decided not to see it after all the lukewarm and bad reviews, so my expectations were low. I found it boring for awhile but it picked up and there were several shining moments including the dildo chair and the final scene.
When it ended my wife said, “why did that get bad reviews?!” and I was kind of thinking “meh” at the time but it’s been a couple days now and I’m still thinking about it so I must’ve really liked it. I think I’ll watch it again which I very rarely do these days.
Did no one else catch that George Clooney’s big triangle pillow thing was another sex toy? The fact that they didn’t mention it just made it twice as hilarious to me. Brilliant.
I’m thinking it got put on DVD quickly to try to capitalize on gift card buys right after Christmas. DVD releases are usually pretty slow in the first part of the year until the Winter/Oscar pictures come out on DVD in Feb/March. If they would have released it in late January, the release would have gone unnoticed. By releasing right before Christmas, the studio might get some people picking it up who already have Dark Knight and the other blockbusters.
Um . . . because it sucked? One of the worst movies of the year? The Coen Bros’ second worst movie?
Checks text messages
Huh. Someone’s been using your phone to send text messages.
In any case, whatever. It was one of my favorite films of the year. I saw it 3 times in the theater and want to see it again. I need to buy the DVD.
Saw this last night and really enjoyed it.
I loved the last scene, especially the bit about Clooney’s character being picked up trying to board a plane to Venezuela because they don’t have an extradition treaty w/ the US. When the underling asks what they should do with him and JK Simmons says “Put him on a plane to Venezuela!” He just couldn’t be bothered to actually do deal with any of the retarded bullshit…having bodies burned and whatnot.
All these people are going to vanish and nobody will really know what had ever happened to them.
I just saw it and found it pretty funny overall. Not as strongly and consistently funny as, say, Fargo, but a darn sight better than what I’d been reading here and there.
The best bits: That chair in the basement–I laughed out loud when I saw it; Brad Pitt was a funny dork; Frances McDormand was wonderful as always; there were some pretty good lines; there was no wasted dialogue or dead air.
Violent? Sure, but not a gore-fest by any means. I did feel kinda bad about Chad and the gym boss dying–but then again, they had no business snooping around where they were.