BURN AFTER READING
Year: 2008
USA: Focus Features
UK: Universal Pictures International UK
Cast: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, JK Simmons, Olek Krupa, Michael Countryman, Kevin Sussman, JR Horne, Hamilton Clancy, Armand Schultz, Pun Bandhu, Karla Mosley, Jeffrey DeMunn, Richard Poe, Carmen M Herlihy, Raul Aranas, Judy Frank, Sandor Tecsy, Yury Tsykun, Brian O'Neill , Robert Prescott, Matt Walton, Lori Hammel, Crystal Bock, Patrick Boll, Logan Kulick, Dermot Mulroney
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Countries: USA / UK / France
USA & UK: 96 mins
USA Rated: R for pervasive language, some sexual content, and violence
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language, sex references and brief bloody violence
USA Release Date: 12 September 2008
UK Release Date: 17 October 2008
Synopsis
BURN AFTER READING is a comedy thriller from writer/director duo, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, FARGO, THE BIG LEBOWSKI).
At the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Arlington, Virginia, analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) 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 (Tilda Swinton) is dismayed, though not particularly surprised; she is already well into an illicit affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a married federal marshal, and sets about making plans to leave Cox for Harry.
Elsewhere in the Washington, DC suburbs, and seemingly worlds apart, Hardbodies Fitness Centers employee Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) 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 (Brad Pitt). Linda is all but oblivious to the fact that the gym's manager Ted Treffon (Richard Jenkins) pines for her even as she arranges dates via the Internet with other men.