Baffled After Viewing!
TSI Five-O: A dark and comic brew

The four-time Academy Award winning Coen brothers – Joel and Ethan – have this time created a spoof on spy thrillers that doesn’t really fit into any particular genre. Black comedy? Maybe, almost…Towards the end of the film, a character helplessly exclaims at how nothing makes sense in the story. I kept sitting along with the rest of the audience who refused to stir after the movie ended, as if in expectation of some explanation, but to no avail, for this is a film intent on leaving everyone as baffled as all its characters!

A lady’s (Frances McDormand playing gym instructor Linda) desire for cosmetic surgery drives her to conspire with her dumb colleague (Brad Pitt drops his sexy image and carries his semi-blond hair with aplomb) to blackmail a former CIA official Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich), whose wife (Tilda Swinton) wants a divorce from him. And there is Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) who’s cheating on his wife and dating Cox’s wife! Throw in trips to the Russian embassy and some murders and you have a gist of this crazy film!

“Burn after Reading” is a fun film thanks to its comic moments, flawless execution and performances of all the actors. Only the Coen brothers have the pedigree to bring the utter randomness of the whole espionage business to life and juxtapose it against the limits of human stupidity. What transpires is darkly funny, but the mess it leaves behind is a bit difficult to comprehend.

Anu Gulmohar