Thoughts on BURN AFTER READING

Seen it!

*** (out of four)
letter grade: B+

These are certainly much kinder responses than I had to THE BIG LEBOWSKI, although I don't think BURN is nearly as good.

Finally, we've had ourselves another authentic Coen Brothers experience - much more so than THE LADYKILLERS and even NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (which I really feel was a major departure, albeit a progressive one). Maybe it has something to do with the fact that those were adaptations. A true-to-the-game Coen Bros. experience just feels better when it's their original script.

What might have really done it for me, in terms of it feeling like the real deal again, is Carter Burwell's score, which echoes previous gems like FARGO and BARTON FINK.

I like this better than THE LADYKILLERS, INTOLERABLE CRUELTY (though I liked it) and O BROTHER (relax, His Starkness - you're getting married). Repeat viewings are really going to enhance this movie, which is already a ton of fun.

One aspect that doesn't quite catapult it to the top of the catalogue might be the entire point of the movie (which means I'll probably like it even more for this reason once I watch it a few more times, which I will). The stakes just didn't feel high enough for the characters, even if they resulted in a few deaths, the highest stakes imaginable. Like Mr. Strickland and the CIA man suggested, the whole situation was a giant clusterf*ck, where the big picture wasn't quite as dire as everyone (aside from the Russians) seemed to think it was. The CIA sequences might have been my favorite in the movie. I don't get your beef. Corey's Greek-chorus comparison is appropriate. That they were so dry probably sold it better than broader delivery would have. JK Simmons was used very well here, unlike how he was in the Coens' sh*t sandwich.

THE BIGGEST, BADDEST, HEAVIEST, PUREST COEN BROTHERS MOMENT: the Princeton reunion party. That felt like a mash-up of several of their films; a scene that belongs with their best ones.

Quite frankly, the script just doesn't have the firepower of their previous efforts. Looking back at HUDSUCKER, FINK, MILLER'S CROSSING and RAISING ARIZONA, it's certainly hard to top their previous achievements, but we can have high expectations, can't we? Plenty of the dialogue was fun, but I didn't find a ton of it to be as unique as what they've written before. Most of Osbourne Cox's lines and actions were great, though.

SPOILER STUFF (no kidding)

Regarding the closet. While I think it's appropriate to laugh here, it was maybe the scariest scene in the movie (other than the Princeton reunion). That damn smile right before stuck with me until the end of it all. Personally, I think the Coens are getting a little to good at violent shootings - they're right up there with Spielberg if you ask me (SCHINDLER'S LIST and MUNICH are BRUTAL). Poor Chad.

And for that matter, Poor Ted (Richard Jenkins), too. One of the best and saddest lines in the movie: "You've changed, Linda! And that's sad." Maybe more viewings (spotting a theme here?) will change my mind, but I can't decide what I think about the inclusion of this character. Or maybe not so much the inclusion but the amount of screen time he gets. He's a wonderful, pathetic character, but there are times when I don't feel like he really belongs in the bigger picture. For a clinic in how secondary characters with minimal screen time are used to their fullest potential, take another look at FARGO. Every actor deserved attention from the Academy. I mean EVERY ACTOR. Even the snow-shoveling eyewitness. It's still their masterpiece. Maybe by far, which says something.

Another favorite scene: Clooney's last moments. Yet another Coen Bros. character that deserves a movie onto himself. I really am still scratching my head over his secret basement project.

In no way is this movie close to their sh*t sandwich. It's really good and will likely get better.