At the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Arlington, Va., analyst Osborne Cox arrives for a top-secret meeting. Unfortunately for Cox, the secret is soon out: he is being ousted. Cox does not take the news particularly well and returns to his Georgetown home to work on his memoirs and his drinking, not necessarily in that order. His wife Katie is dismayed, though not particularly surprised; she is already well into an illicit affair with Harry Pfarrer, a married federal marshal, and sets about making plans to leave Cox for Harry. Elsewhere in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, and seemingly worlds apart, Hardbodies Fitness Centers employee Linda Litzke can barely concentrate on her work. She is consumed with her life plan for extensive cosmetic surgery, and confides her mission to can-do colleague Chad Feldheimer. Linda is all but oblivious to the fact that the gym's manager Ted Treffon pines for her even as she arranges dates via the Internet with other men. When a computer disc containing material for the CIA analyst's memoirs accidentally falls into the hands of Linda and Chad, the duo are intent on exploiting their find. As Ted frets, "No good can come of this," events spiral out of everyone's and anyone's control, in a cascading series of darkly hilarious encounters.
Burn After Reading is a brilliantly dark comedy with a great cast of characters. Each character in the film had his or her own quirky tick that you ultimately fall in love with. Brad Pitt and Clooney really are great at comedies. Brad Pitt’s character (Chad) is really priceless.
The film it’s self is a cross between the slick sexy spy moves of James Bond and the completely blind stupidity of Homer Simpson. It’s an interesting blend of dark comedy, action and it’s own version of “romance.” I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The plot is what really throws you. It’s a pretty complicated spider web of characters that ultimately intertwines our main characters, the CIA and the Russian Embasy. At the core of this mass of drama is a woman who simply wants some plastic surgery. Yea try figuring that one out. It’s really hilarious and I highly recommend it.
