Burn After Reading vs Smart People

Burn After Reading is the new comedy from the Coen brothers, and as such, it’s considered one of their “in-between” movies, or, inexplicably, one that’s disposable or not to be taken seriously. As if Burn After Reading being funny somehow makes it lesser in terms of the amount of effort required of its creators. Does it have the emotional heft of No Country for Old Men? Is it as inventive and authentic as Fargo? Well no, but jeez, what is? Burn After Reading is as much fun as you’re likely to have at the movies this year, and it has everything to do with the Coen brothers, who deserve to have fun once in a while. Remember the dead dogs in their last movie? The gross broken arm? The Coens need a laugh, and so do I.

Frances McDormand stars as Linda, a gym employee obsessed with finding the perfect mate online, as well as raising enough money to remake herself physically with plastic surgery. Linda believes her current body’s taken her as far as it can, and that she’s being held back from happiness by not being pretty enough. McDormand spends much of Burn After Reading being naïve and wacky, but she’s such a fine actor she anchors everything that happens (and a lot happens) in as much humanity as she’s brought to any of her dramatic work. And as far as not being pretty enough, well, Linda does have sort of a mousy haircut, and she could do with a better-fitting work uniform, but anyone played by the actor who played Jane in Laurel Canyon has built up enough hot reserves to be plain in a film or three.

Linda works with her best friend, Chad, an over-hydrated airhead constantly listening to music and probably the voice of a more awesome version of himself that lives in his head. Brad Pitt plays Chad, and it must be said: after nearly two decades of watching this guy in movies, in Burn After Reading, we’re seeing something new. Pitt as Chad is the funniest performance in a movie this year, and one of the best of his career so far. I laughed at Chad dancing in his car to the point of embarrassment. Chad and Linda have come across a disc filled with what they believe to be top-secret government intelligence they can use to their advantage. Chad is in it for the adventure (and possibly to fulfill his destiny as a hero of some sort), but Linda has her eye on that new body she wants so desperately. And who could blame her; she’s been on a series of internet matchmaking dates that have managed to pair her pathos with a desperation I’m sure she’d rather left in the mirror.

Linda has found some hope in Harry, who listens, finds her attractive, has a freaky side (and in an even more embarrassing laughing jag for me, a contraption he’s building in his basement), and of course, another girlfriend. Harry is played by George Clooney. Unlike Brad Pitt, he takes this side of himself out for a walk once in a while, usually for the Coens. George Clooney playing smart in movies like Syrianna and Michael Clayton can be riveting. But George Clooney playing a wide-eyed moron for the Coens is one of the best things going in movies right now. Harry’s girlfriend is Tilda Swinton, whose husband is an f-bomb-dropping John Malkovich (having more fun than he’s had since he played himself), who happens to work for the government…and lost a disc containing portions of his memoirs. I’ll leave the details of Burn After Reading’s capers, farces, switcheroos and confusions for you to discover on your own. Suffice to say, all the above characters interact (and then some), and if you think the Coens aren’t going to drop a touch of shocking violence in just because this one’s funny, well, prepare yourself (it’s just one moment, but it’s hilarious and shocking. Think Mia Wallace being stabbed alive in Pulp Fiction.)

Burn After Reading is brief, hilarious, complicated, stupid and more fun than I had at the movies all summer. Yeah, Dark Knight was a lot of fun, but it’s got a dedication to a dead guy at the end. Burn After Reading is eating dessert first, then having dessert anyway. It’s hilarious and weird just like I like the Coens to be when they’re apparently not working very hard. Shit, if only my vacations were as productive.

Burn After Reading follows a similar path as Ruthless People, another film about stupid people trying to get rich and get away with it while dealing with even stupider people. As much as I loved Burn After Reading, though, I’m hesitant to compare it to anything as broadly wacky as Ruthless People, and risk you not believing it’s got any heft of its own. Instead, let’s go with Smart People, which by virtue of its title, would seem to be the antidote to the silliness of Burn After Reading. Instead, the whiners and emotional children of Smart People might just make you see Burn After Reading as some sort of societal comment on the nature of intelligent human interaction. Or maybe Smart People just isn’t as good.

It’s definitely got a great cast. Dennis Quaid stars as an uptight widower college professor. He’s shown as being out-of-touch or insensitive or whatever because he can’t remember the names of his students, but honestly that seems a lot to ask. What if he’s been teaching a long time, or if he has a lot of classes? Thomas Hayden Church is his freeloading younger brother (they make a huge point to say he’s adopted, but it means little to the story otherwise), Ellen Page is his equally uptight-but-different-politically daughter, and Sarah Jessica Parker is the Doctor Who Helps Him Lighten Up and Learn to Love Again. Quaid gets in an accident, sustains a head injury, can’t drive, must rely on Church to drive him around, must take time to get to know Page again, must have awkard dates with Parker until he finally Gets It. The only characters I cared much about were Church’s and Parker’s. They can both take and make a joke, and both actors are relaxed, quick and funny. I’m not sure what kind of movie it would have been for them to have hooked up, but it’s one I’m willing to watch.

But the movie I got was just kind of a lot of complaining and talking about being different without anyone actually going all that far to express individuality. Page’s role is limited to acknowledging her uniqueness without actually portraying much of it on screen. She’s got an awkward couple scenes with Church that come out of nowhere, go nowhere and made me wanna wash my hands afterwards.

Smart People was, I assume, a long script by Mark Poirer, turned into a short movie by Noam Murro. There’s an extended sequence during the closing credits that flashes forward a full year and is full of information about what happened to whom, and how happy everyone is now, set to music and containing no audio from the actors. It’s a shame. All the analyzing and navel-gazing Parker and Church put up with from Page and Quaid, it’s a shame we can’t hear them have fun in the future. What you wanna bet those two break it down old-school in their cars like Chad when they think no one’s looking?

Burn After Reading: A

Smart People: B-