Burn After Reading Not Worth the Heat

Have you ever been invited to a really cool party and then you got there and stood awkwardly with a warm beer for a couple of hours, wondering why you thought you'd want these people as your friends?

The filmic equivalent of those uncomfortable hours is Burn After Reading, the new movie from the Coen brothers. It's being toted as a satire but it's actually a farce, with overblown characters and ludicrous incidents leading up to...well, not much.

It's almost painful to watch an actress as respectable as Fran McDormand reduced to hysterically squealing, while Brad Pitt's interpretation of a personal trainer has the subtlety and originality of an eleven-year old's performance in an improv exercise.

Maybe the inclusion of a guy named Cox (John Malkovich) and a guy obsessed with his cock (George Clooney) push this film into the darker regions, but there is nothing particularly funny about the dialogue or plot. And again, the actors' deliveries are so ham-fisted that they border closer to annoying than entertaining.

If you are looking for a party that you'll actually enjoy, I recommend going out to see Hamlet 2. It includes Steve Coogan, a musical number about sexy Jesus, and a testes-temperature moderating caftan. Now that's comedy.