Burn After Reading

Burn After Reading is the latest movie from Joel and Ethan Coen to hit the movie theaters. It boasts a stellar cast: Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich, and a host of other very talented actors who are not exactly household names.

The print ads for the movie carry the tag line “intelligence is relative”, and that certainly seems to be the case. Burn After Reading opens at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. John Malkovich is Osborne Cox, a long-term CIA agent about to be re-assigned. Tilda Swinton portrays Katie Cox, Osborne’s wife. She is a doctor who is involved with George Clooney’s character, whose wife is a well-known children’s book author.

Somehow, these intelligent, accomplished people get involved with Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) and Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand). They are personal trainers and close friends. Neither one of them is too bright, but they are ambitious. Linda’s current ambition is to change her life by getting extensive, and expensive, plastic surgery. Thanks to a CD found in the women’s locker room at the gym, Chad and Linda cook up an improbable blackmail scheme to get the money for Linda’s surgeries. There are numerous mishaps along the way, of course.

This movie is funny and fun. The Washington D.C. locations are great (although most of the film was shot on location elsewhere). This is a great reminder that the people we rely on in this country for intelligence are as fallible and flawed as the rest of us.

Burn After Reading

Posted by: admin | 09-13-2008 | 02:09 PM
Posted in: Movie | Comments (0)

Bad Girl Creek

I had never heard of the author of Bad Girl Creek, Jo-Ann Mapson, until this book was given to me. She is, apparently, quite a popular writer and at least one of her books has been made into a TV movie.

Bad Girl Creek is set in coastal California, in a fictional town which seems to be located on the Monterey Peninsula, very likely Carmel. The setting is lovely and idyllic. There are beautiful homes and cottages by the sea. Most of the action takes place on a flower farm which Phoebe DeThomas has inherited from her aunt. Phoebe is confined to a wheelchair and is unable to run the farm alone. She takes in three roommates and their animals (a horse, a dog, and a parrot). They all agree to pay rent and work on the farm, in exchange for future profits.

The roommates come with difficult and very different backgrounds. The story is told through the perspective of each of the women, and is further divided into sections by the seasons. The women bond as the months pass. There are, of course, complications, including health scares and problematic relationships with men.

I found the writing to be a bit stilted. There were a number of grammatical issues (aren’t there copy editors?) which really annoyed me. Although the set-up and the characters seemed original, the plot developed in a rather predictable manner. However, it was a decent effort, and fine to read when I was not in the mood for a challenge. As an aside, Mapson seems to be friends with Earlene Fowler, and one of her books is referenced in Bad Girl Creek.

In USA:

Published in hardcover-Simon & Schuster 2001
Softcover edition-Simon & Schuster 2002

Bad Girl Creek : A Novel

Posted by: admin | 09-06-2008 | 09:09 AM
Posted in: Fiction | Comments (0)