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Intolerable Cruelty (Widescreen Edition) Customer Reviews (43 - 45 of 74 Reviews)

Classic Screwball
If you enjoy the classic screwball comedies of Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels), you'll enjoy this. It's not great, but it is very good. I was pleasantly surprised

fun movie, but not a fun Coen Bros. movie
George Clooney is Miles Massey, a divorce law king who may have met his match. Catherine Zeta Jones is Marylin - the queen of gold-digging divorcees (who marries so often, it's pointless to giver her last name). Naturally, their respective professions guarantee that they'll cross paths and, given that this is a movie, they're bound to fall in love. Except that this is also a Coen brothers movie ("Fargo", "Blood Simple", "Oh Bother", "Raising Arizona"), which means that we're not sure exactly what's on their minds. Being great judges of character, each can spot the other from miles away - but something causes each to lower his/her guard for the other. Is it love? And since this is a Coen brothers movie, what schemes will they cook up against each other before they grow up and honestly fall for each other (or simply fall about each other). Massey is an ace at the warfare of divorce law - which he proves phenomenonly well in the first half hour (despite solid proof of adultery, he manages to win all for the wife of a soap-opera producer played by Geoffrey Rush; he has crafted the perfect, impenenetrable pre-nuptial agreement) and though he wins an early battle against Marilyn, we begin to wonder if perhaphs he has bitten off way too much than he can chew.

"Intolerable" is fun, but it's not the breathless fun of other Coen comedies like "Brother" or "Hudsucker Proxy" with its fast moving dialog and endless visual gags. For a change, the Coens don't lard their story with hysterically off-balance supporting characters (like John Goodman or Charles Durning), and little of the plot goes to throwing us off balance with the intricate plotting of its stars. Unfortunately, the twists and turns seem less ironic than simply confusing (they love each other, they must conquer each other, they must destroy each other, but they can't live without each other). The movie sets us up not to be surprised by the turns of its characters - Clooney starts off chipper but obviously dissatisfied with his life, and almost immediately smitten with Zeta-Jones; Marilyn only wants financial independence and freedom, but there are women who got that without having to choose it over love, and it's not long before she begins to wonder over whether there's more to happiness than a Porsche. Worse, in spots, the film hints at the sort of mad-cap fun that the Coen brothers are known for. There are some extra characters who do seem off-center, but they appear only briefly rather than ride the length of the flick, notably "Cedric the Entertainer" as a private investigator who works for anybody wanting to uncover any piece of evidence of infidelity ("nail his ass" - that's his motto) but he disappears too soon, as if the flick couldn't come up with some way to tap into his energy. There's also Billy Bob Thornton who appears to be a fast-talking scion of Texas oil money, the kind of character a Coen flick should be chok-filled with - but since "Intolerable" has few surprises, it can't keep your mind busy enough to forget that he might be one of Marilyn's weapons of destruction. There's also Edward Herrman as Marilyn's first domestic victim (at least the first one in this movie). His big problem isn't so much infidelity (though that is a problem) as much as a preoccupation with trains. It's during his trial that the flick tosses some of the madcap jokes (a bout of fast wordplay between Clooney and a fellow lawyer with Herrman between them; a flamboyant concierge with some dirt on Zeta-Jones and Herrman) that may remind Coen fans of other movies. It's only another sign that "Intolerable" is actually a conventional romantic comedy that tries to be a Coen brothers movie, but doesn't quite pull it off. In short, if you're up for amovie, go for it. Coen Bros. fans may not tolerate this one.

Not the Coen Brothers Best But Still Darn Amusing
The Coen Brothers almost never fail to engage me, and Intolerable Cruelty didn't disappoint. The movie has a simple premise (as many of their films do) but is populated by strange and interesting characters. The chemistry between George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones is fun to watch as they circle each other, alternating between truth and deception. I wouldn't expect the intelligence and brillance of O' Brother Where Art Thou, but it's still an entertaing film that no Coen Brothers fan should miss.

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