There’s no doubt about it, the Coen brothers have had a very strange career. They have written and directed some of the most bizarre and surreal films of the past 20 years. From the comedy of ‘Raising Arizona’ and ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ to the drama of ‘Fargo’ and ‘Barton Fink,’ it has been as odd, odd career. The Coens were seen as being in a dry spot recently for awhile critical and box office disappointments like ‘The Lady Killers’ and ‘Intolerable Cruelty,’ but they hit it big again when they got the Oscar for best picture with ‘No Country for Old Men.’ So after their exhausting career of ups and downs, what can the Coen brothers do next? Return to their entirely pointless comedies of course. Enter ‘Burn After Reading,’ a strange dark comedy that fits the Coen brother’s off beat career like a bloody glove.

It’s not so easy to say what this film is about as it is to say who it’s about. The film is about a strange line up of characters played by some of Hollywood’s highest paid actors. Brad Pitt plays Chad Feldheimer, a hyper-active gym trainer who works with Frances McDormand’s character, Linda Litzke. She’s insecure because she doesn’t believe she’s good looking enough to get herself a man. So she Pitt tries to bribe John Malkovich’s character, x-CIA agent Osborne Cox, because she has what she believes is top secret information about him on a disc. But really the disc is Malkovich’s account information put together by his wife played by Tilda Swinton. She did this because she plans to divorce Malkovich and go live with George Clooney’s character, Harry Pfaffer, an ex-bodyguard. Simple, right?

To give away anymore would be damaging to the comedic surprises that the film has in store, so I will instead talk about what kind of humor the film dispenses…dark. The Coen brothers have been known for their dark humor and this film is no different. That is to say not too many people die, but the ones that do and the way they go are certainly for those who have a very twisted sense of humor. The rest of the comedic styling is typical Coen brothers, stringing together a series of scenes that are both awkward and funny. Sometimes the comedy of a scene simply comes from the fact that there’s no real punch line before the scene ends, it just kind of stops. Other times it comes from the fact that most of talking being done by one person is not being focused on. Rather it’s the person listening who we see through most of the conversation. Why? I’m not quite sure, but it does often get a shrug out of the audience, followed by a giggle.

The cast for the movie is mostly well picked, with a series of characters that range more in levels of stupidity as opposed charming characteristics. Clooney at times seems too over the top, but then again I guess everyone is a little over the top already, so it all kind of blends together a bit. The funniest parts involve two FBI agents played by J.K. Simmons and Olek Krupa watching all these events unravel trying to figure out why and what exactly is going on, very much like the audience throughout the majority of the film. By the end, nothing is really realized or learned, it’s just a strange series of circumstances that seemed to happen and then stop happening. It’s very much along the lines the Coens’ other pointless comedic thriller ‘The big Lebowski,’ except you could argue that this film is even more pointless (yes, it is possible). If anything the film almost seems like a satire of the Coens’ other movies, dealing with simple, non-intelligent people whose lives get turned around simply due to a larger amount of greed than most other people have. The ending speech can almost be applied to ‘No Country for Old Men’ if it wanted a more humorous ending, but my guess is it wouldn’t have gotten the Oscar.

So who will like it? Fans of the Coens will enjoy it, as well as anyone who likes dark humor and somewhat pointless story telling. It’s just there to get some laughs and amaze you at how sometimes something adds up to nothing. It’s kind of like the Seinfeld of spy thrillers.

Who won’t like it? Squeamish people will cringe at a couple parts (including an overly graphic scene of someone getting killed with an ax). People who don’t like dark comedies should stay away, as well as people who want something resembling point or meaning in their comedies, this films has none of that.

My thoughts? This is traditional Coen brothers with even more emptiness than their other comedies. It not only enjoys the fact that it has no point, it relishes it. It’s one of those movies where every time one of the characters popped up, I started laughing. Why? Because I knew they were going to make everything worse. That’s a great feeling for a comedy, and one that the Coen brothers haven’t had in their movies for awhile. It’s good to see them back at what they do so well, and still finding different ways to shock and please their audiences. Is it one of their best? No, but it is very entertaining, and with a background spanning as far as their has, entertaining is good.

Douglas Darien is a featured writer for Xomba.com. Read the rest of his work here or visit his website www.thatguywiththeglasses.com.