STARRING:George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton
RUNTIME:1 hour 35 minutes
RATING:R (pervasive language, some sexual content, and violence)
RELEASE DATE:September 12, 2008
A month after Tropic Thunder began its run, another R rated comedy thriller is coming. Burn After Reading is the latest entry by the talented Cohen brothers. As with Thunder, this one features some top shelf talent, including George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
At the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency, analyst Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) arrives for a top secret meeting. Unfortunately for Cox, the secret is soon out: he is being ousted. Cox doesn’t take the news well and returns to his Georgetown home to work on his memoirs and his drinking, not necessarily in that order. His wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton) is dismayed, though not particularly surprised. She is already having an affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a married federal marshal, and sets about making plans to leave Cox.
When a computer disc containing material for Cox’s memoirs accidentally falls into the hands of Linda (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt), two fitness center co-workers, the duo are intent on exploiting their find. That’s when events start to spiral out of everyone’s control in a cascading series of hilarious encounters.
