BURN AFTER READING (MA) 
Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Burn After Reading is a minor knockabout tossed out by brothers who show more courage and spirit in their lightest moments than most directors ever get a chance to do. Although it doesn’t withstand rigorous comparison to Fargo or Barton Fink, it was never meant to.

Consider Brad Pitt’s harebrained, gum-chewing gym instructor around whom the story turns. Always an engaging actor, he reveals another side that’s part college boy, part Jerry Lewis in its goofy, magnetic innocence.

He, Chad, finds a data-filled disc about bilious CIA analyst Osbourne Cox and coerced by cash-strapped co-worker Linda turns to blackmail. Meanwhile Linda is dating three-timing married Harry who’s also having an affair with Osbourne’s ice-wife Katie who, for her turn, is plotting to divorce her husband. Once Linda and Chad approach the Russian embassy all bets are off.

Although we’re urged to laugh at, not with, the Coens’ cast of fools, sex, lies and compact discs have never been so painfully funny. If there are any residual concerns about the picture’s net worth, which is to say that Burn After Reading doesn’t really add up to all that much, it should be put in context of raspberry soufflé. It may be light, but that doesn’t make it any less delicious.

- Colin Fraser