Burn After Reading

I watched a few movies since we last met in class, Goodfellas, Mystic River, and Burn After Reading. I chose Burn After Reading because it was the first time I had seen it and I see the Coen Brothers as a model for what I would like to do with my career as a writer. The Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, have had the same cinematographer since their entry into Hollywood, but he had committed to Sam Mendes and his new film Revolutionary Road. To me, someone who has studied the Coen Brother’s work, it was apparent that their was someone different doing their principal photography and it didn’t have the same effect. To me, they are famous for creating their own genre, and story-wise, they did, but the camera work felt too commercial and “blockbuster-y.”
Being that Joel and Ethan, are who they are, they can write roles for specific actors. They wrote the part of Osborne Cox specifically for John Malkovich and it worked perfectly. It seemed that all of these characters were a risk for each actor, except for Malkovich. Pitt, who usually plays the “suave-handsome-athletic-cool-calm-demanding” roles found himself playing a “dumb” role, and playing it well. With a cast , like they had, it does show how the “big whigs” in Hollywood, can get whoever they want. But in my personal opinion this film would have failed without Clooney, Malkovich, Pitt, and McDormand. What stands out from all of the Coen pieces that I have seen is their ability to create relationships, and that is what made this movie what it is. To make a movie believable and have people fall into the story and become a part of it, you have to make characters not only interact successfully, but interact in a way in which it is uncommon and entertaining, and these characters exceeded that.