On Burn NoticeSurprisingly, it seems like such a long time ago since the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, re-established themselves as the great auteurs of our time with the wonderful and clever No Country for Old Men, and with all the Oscar talk buzzing around new films, it doesn't seem like it was only six months ago when the directing/writing duo picked up three statues a piece from the Academy. They are great filmmakers; there is no doubt about it. However, the long wait for the brothers to give us a riveting new comedy is not imagined at all. It's been twelve years since Fargo, and in that time, the Coens have been attempting comedy with no real success, when even their cult hit The Big Lebowski is only noticeable on that cult status and not as a serious film. Burn After Reading isn't the best from these legends of cinema, but it's a hot way to start off the fall movie season.
The film opens with Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), a CIA analyst who was recently demoted because of his personal problems. Rather than take the reduced security status, Cox decided to quit and write a memoir, an obvious connection to a recent political trend. This new, disgruntled Osborne is causing a rift in his marriage, and his wife Katie (recent Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton) takes the road to divorce aided by the fact that she is sleeping with a CIA treasurer, Harry (George Clooney). To prepare for a messy divorce, Katie goes through many of Osborne's financial files and pulls out sections of his memoirs, which she loads onto a disk for evidence.
That disk is lost by a secretary at Hard Bodies, a second class membership gym that employs people who don't look like they work there. Linda (Frances MacDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt) mistake the financial records as classified CIA files and want to blackmail Osborne for its safe return (Linda is also looking for payments on plastic surgeries). The characters sink even deeper in bed together when when Harry begins to date Linda via an online dating service.
The plot may not always make sense, but I think it's a brilliant mark on how magnificent the Coen brothers are as writers. In the beginning, it all seems a jumbled mess, and you wonder how on earth all of these different characters are going to come together. Then, by some miracle, it happens. The path that gets these characters interacting are not always subtle, but it's fascinating to see the minds of these filmmakers unravel. Their comedic tones as directors are always uneven, as one scene can rely on smart dialogue and slapstick gags simultaneously, but they serve their purpose at making us laugh.
Even though this is a Coen brothers comedy, it still suffers from my theory about all comedies: there is a single character who, despite the talents of the other actors, manages to be the driving force of the film and makes the piece watchable from beginning to end (examples from this year include James Franco in Pineapple Express and Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder). In this film, it is Brad Pitt. Pitt is completely out of touch with characters that he normally plays, and I think he has a perfect comedic sense in this film. In fact, is shows people that Pitt is much more that what people would make him out to be, and with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button coming out near Christmas, I think we'll have a perfect talent arch from Pitt this year. The rest of the cast does fine and score big laughs (especially with Tilda Swinton doing the "mean guy" role she chose to pass over for Michael Clayton), none of them really are at the level of comedy they could be, particularly a little too showy Malkovich. However, the scenes between J.K. Simmons and David Rasche are priceless as two CIA heads that have no idea what everyone is doing and what they should do about it.
While the film is very enjoyable, it isn't perfect. For the first half of the movie, it seems as if the Coens are unsure at first what characters they think are going to be the most entertaining, so they bait the audience with light jokes about each setting, and because of this, the film has a difficult time settling in. Then there seems to be a moment when the story finally finds its comfort zone and begins to feel not so tense.
Everyone will compare this film to Fargo, and while it is nowhere near the level of greatness that film was, I appreciated its attempt to almost be the same film except with a complete opposite in theme. In Fargo, the theme was that those who appear to be naive and incompetent are really the smartest ones in the room. In this film, the theme is that those who have all the intelligence and the best means of getting information can be just as moronic and dumb-witted as the next person. It's an interesting way to put things, and it's ending reflects that mood (this one is not as complicated as their last movie ending). It's not their best comedy, but I'm honestly happy with any of their comedies that make me smile after The Ladykillers. *** / ****; GRADE: B
Right as StrainJake La Motta and Lt. Col. Frank Slade. Jimmy Conway and Tony Montana. Travis Bickle and Frank Serprico. Vito and Michael Corleone. Nobody does it better, and no one need argue further that two of the greatest American actors were Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Between them, there is nearly eighty years of acting experience, and they have proved themselves to us that they are the best and part of a privileged few to be called that. In describing them, however, I can't help but continue to use the past tense, in particular they "were" the greatest. That is because recently, they have also joined another group of prestigious actors who have given up proving themselves in great roles because they already did that thirty years ago. Now, we get silly comedies and implausable "dramas" from the both of them. The thought behind some studio executive's suggestion for this film was that pairing these two legends together on screen would mean a really good film. Well, for those hoping that De Niro's and Pacino's first film together since Heat thirteen years ago was going to be as good will end up being disappointed.
Like most cop dramas, this film is held together by the bond of two partners that have been together on the force for a very long time. De Niro and Pacino play Turk and Rooster, respectively, and the case they're working on now is a serial killer targeting many lowlifes in the city (there's a plot we've never heard of before). To add some help, new, younger cops are brought into the investigation (John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg) and their speculation concludes that the killer might be a cop (and the originality keeps on springing up).
It would be futile to continue on with trying to explain the plot because it doesn't really matter. The reason why people are going to spend money on this picture is because of the leads. Not even Curtis Jackson (the artist formerly known as 50 Cent) is going to get people to see this film when he has two Oscar-winners in front of him. It's a shame that the plot is taken so carelessly, considering writer Russell Gewirtz mined a great story out of Inside Man (which was hurt by some passive editing). Director Jon Avnet directs this film as mediocre as it could get, but I will say it's a step up from his previous collaboration with Pacino 88 Minutes, which I still consider to be the worst film of the year thus far.
There is also not much to say about the acting either. Pacino and De Niro are good, of course, but it seems like there are times when both of their personalities try to overpower the other. It's not a case of upstaging one another, but more so like there are too many big names here with distinct personas, and they keep tripping over each other. All the other characters are cookie-cutter types from all other genre pics, including Brian Dennehy's grouch but understanding lieutenant.
Had this movie not starred these two great actors, I doubt people would be heading in droves to see this film. I doubt that any positive critical reception it receives would be still be said. Despite these great actors, Righteous Kill is nothing more than a predictable, run-of-the-mill cop drama that's probably worth a rental on Netflix. I'd recommend people go watch the two other movies that De Niro and Pacino both starred in: Heat and The Godfather Part II. They didn't have that much screen time together, but maybe that was a good thing. **1/2 / ****; GRADE: C+
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