Can Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan Coens’ next feature film, possibly measure up to No Country for Old Men?

As the critical darling of 2007, the Oscar pick for Best Picture, the film proclaimed by so many to be the very best and the most meaningful in the Coens’ oeuvre, and the film that New York magazine’s David Edelstein said showed "their evolution from snotty art-film postmodern jokesters to snotty art-film jokesters ... with soul," No Country For Old Men generated ridiculous amounts of buzz.

For sure, No Country will be a hard act to follow. Schindler’s List was a hard act to follow too. And I think we can all agree that Spielberg’s next movie, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, didn't come close to comparing. Did the Coen brothers raise their own bar so high with No Country that their next film has no hope?

No, not at all.

No Country is, and (I will venture a guess) will always be, an anomaly in the Coens' collection. The writer-directors have said themselves that their purpose with No Country was to problem-solve how to make an adaptation of a novel, which they accomplished beautifully. Although considering this approach and outcome, aren't the critics who have been so impressed by No Country as much in love with Cormac McCarthy's vision as they are with the Coens'?

The sibling filmmakers' MO has traditionally been to write and direct offbeat, visually alluring crime capers that are as much about style as content -- you know, exhilaratingly eccentric and darkly comic films like Barton Fink, Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski, and Fargo. And for all of you Coen brothers fans who love them for their zaniness and who felt a bit betrayed by No Country's stone-cold seriousness, rest assured that Burn After Reading will be a return to the Coens' bread-and-butter style full of colorful idiot-savant characters.

How do I know this? From all the articles, blogs, and gossip reports I've read on the Net, it seems to be the case. The plot for one thing make me think so. Joel Coen summed up the story for About.com as such:

The new film is about the culture of the Central Intelligence Agency and the culture of physical fitness in Washington D.C. and what happens when those two worlds collides... it's also about Internet dating.

Sounds perfect!

And the Coens have assembled a dream team for the cast: John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, and Brad Pitt. According to online reports, Malkovich plays an alcoholic CIA agent who writes a telling and incriminating memoir, which his soon-to-be-ex wife (Tilda Swinton) accidentally leaves at the gym and which then finds its way into the hands of a trainer (Pitt) and the gym owner (McDormand); and then, of course, there is the requisite CIA assassin on everyone's tail (Clooney).

Finally, Frances McDormand, who stole all the scenes in Fargo, returns to one of her hubby's films. It will be interesting to see how Malkovich, who was genius in the dark comedy Being John Malkovich, and Swinton, an amazing actress in anything, approach their roles. By now a veteran at playing Coen-written characters, after hamming it up in Intolerable Cruelty and O Brother Where Are Thou?, Clooney will likely charm us a third time. (In my research for this piece, I discovered that Clooney will be directing the Coens' next screenplay, Surburbicon, which is set to release in 2009. Interesting!) Though the addition of Brad Pitt -- not exactly a master of irony -- to this cast is a bit worrisome.

Set to release in September of 2008, Burn After Reading seems to be fast on the heels of its Oscar-winning predecessor. Apparently fall of 2007 was the only time this star-studded cast could sync their schedules to make the movie, so it's already in post-production. Unfortunately Roger Deakins, the man behind the camera for all Coen brothers' films since 1991's Barton Fink, was booked last fall, so his signature sweeping-panoramic style may be a sadly missed element in the film. (However, Emmanuel Lubezki, who shot Children of Men, replaced him -- so we shouldn't be too worried.)

For two guys whose movies are, as Edelstein puts it, "infused with the warmth of their process," it's clear that making the movies is the fun part, not feeling the prestige or fame at awards ceremonies. With such a seemingly comedic plot, it's hard to imagine the Academy will be that interested in Burn After Reading, and the Coens probably don't give a hoot. I'm just hoping it's as hilarious as The Big Lebowski, though that's probably a tall order too.

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