History Film / BurnAfterReading

%%* BlindDate

* FailedAttemptAtDrama: Chad seems to be trying to look like a thoughtful dramatic lead with furrowed brow and squinted eyes when he confronts Cox with a proposition of reward in exchange for "his shit", but it fails miserably.

* NiceGuy: Despite the movie taking place in a [[WorldOfJerkass world of assholes]], we can say that at least Ted and Chad are decent and likable people.

* AnyoneCanDie: There is no PlotArmor for the PluckyComicRelief (Chad) or the only truly sympathetic character (Ted) in this movie.

* ChekhovsGun: Literally, with Harry's gun. In his introductory scene, he brags about never discharging it in twenty years of service. [[spoiler:He ends up blowing Chad's brains out with it.]]

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Near the end, Linda's blind date is on the bench near her. During George Clooney's freak-out, a woman comes to meet him, who [[StalkerWithACrush looks exactly like her.]]

* ImprovisedWeapon: Ted shows surprising resourcefulness when [[spoiler:held at gunpoint, hurling a paperweight at his attacker to throw off his aim and then running for the door with a bullet in his arm]].

** [[spoiler:Osbourne is married to Katie, has his memoirs stolen by Linda, and kills Ted.\\
Linda is friends with Chad, is oblivious to Ted's attraction, and later goes out with Harry.\\
Harry is married to Sandy, but having an affair with Linda and Katie, and kills Chad.]]

** Linda is responsible for almost every bad thing in the movie [[spoiler:including the deaths of two people]], but she never once owns up to anything she's done and eventually [[KarmaHoudini ends the movie with everything she wants]]. As distraught as she is when [[spoiler:Chad goes missing, she glosses over the fact that ''she sent him into the house in the first place.'']]

** To review: [[spoiler:Linda, who is terribly shallow and greedy, thinks only of her own benefit, and fully intends to sell national secrets to Russia for cash, gets the CIA to pay for her surgeries, and suffers no negative consequences to her actions. Harry, who is a complete sleazebag who constantly cheats on his wife, gets served divorce papers and ends up a paranoid wreck, but otherwise gets away scot-free to Venezuela. Osborne is an alcoholic {{JerkAss}}, but at least has good (if very misguided) intentions; he ends up in a coma and borderline braindead. Finally, the characters who get it worst are Chad and Ted, both sweet and sympathetic characters who just try to help; Chad is shot in the head in the second act, while Ted is shot in the arm ''and hacked to death with a hatchet''.]]

** The CIA Director. It speaks to what kind of movie this is that he [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep isn't even given a name]]. The CIA Officer who relates the tale to him also seems to be doing so in a fashion that suggests he can't quite believe the story he's telling actually happened, but he's not quite as sharp as his boss.

-->'''Osbourne:''' If you ever carried out your proposed threat, you would experience such a shitstorm of consequences, my friend, your empty little head would be spinning faster than the wheels of your Schwinn bicycle back there.\\\

** In a more macro way, it's Katie's copying on files about Osborne to use in the case of a divorce that she accidentally leaves on the floor of a ladies' locker room, picked up by Manolo and opened by Chad that really gets the [[IdiotBall ball]] rolling.

* AccidentalTruth: While cheating on Sandy with Linda, Harry lies to Linda and says he and his wife are taking a break. [[spoiler:Then it turns out the car tailing Harry, which he assumed was a government spook, was actually an investigator from a law firm that Sandy had hired for divorce action.]]

** The ''entire movie'' including Osbourne's demotion at the CIA and subsequent quitting, which lead to Katie copying the Cox files onto the CD, would have been avoided had Osbourne stopped being in denial about his drinking problem. O

** Harry is utterly devastated at [[spoiler:the reveal that his wife has hired a law firm to initiate divorce proceedings. He

** Katie is also this to an extent. Despite her affair with Harry she's the only central character to point out that Osbourne's memoirs - which the events of the entire film revolve around - are completely worthless.

* AccidentalTruth: While cheating on Sandy with Linda, Harry lies to Linda and says he and his wife are taking a break. [[spoiler:Then it turns out the car tailing Harry, which he assumed was a government spook, was actually an investigator from a law firm that Sandy had for divorce action.]]

* InstantDeathBullet: Averted. The only time a character does die from a single bullet, he was shot in the head at point-blank range. But Osborne and Ted both survive being shot, if only barely.
%%* IvyLeagueForEveryone

* FilmWithinAFilm: ''Coming Up Daisy'', a RomanticComedy directed by Creator/SamRaimi, starring Creator/DermotMulroney and Creator/ClaireDanes, and based on a book by [[Literature/NoCountryForOldMen Cormac McCarthy]].

* BetterThanABareBulb: Without the CIA scenes, the plot would look like a ridiculous, disconnected mess. Just having an omniscient observer ''acknowledge'' that the plot is a ridiculous, disconnected mess somehow manages to absolve this. It probably helps that this is a full on IdiotPlot, so having somebody halfway smart being baffled by how stupid this all is makes it funnier.

* BetterThanABareBulb: Without the CIA scenes, the plot would look like a ridiculous, disconnected mess. Just having an omniscient observer ''acknowledge'' that the plot is a ridiculous, disconnected mess somehow manages to absolve this.

* SmallNameBigEgo: The way Osbourne Cox struts around throwing out fancy talk of federal offenses and classified information. What we know of his job is that he makes himself out as '''way''' more important than he ever was during his time at the CIA. While there's no indication that his CD contains actual classified information or valuable secrets, Osborne thinks his warmed-over ruminations about old news are the makings of a bestselling "Washington tell-all" book. He believes himself to be the wise Washington insider whose insights will be greatly valued, instead of the mid-level drunken asshole he really is.

* FanDisservice: Seeing Linda and one of her mystery dates having sex. [[BrainBleach Do not want.]]