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Intolerable Cruelty (Widescreen Edition) Customer Reviews (19 - 21 of 74 Reviews)

George Clooney: The New Cary Grant
George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones are two exceptionally beautiful people. Seeing them together on the screen is great eye candy and almost enough to guarantee a hit movie. The ever-quirky Coen brothers have come up with a farce modeled after the old 1930's "madcap and zany" romantic comedies; the trouble is you need a scorecard to keep track of the action and it really isn't worth the trouble.

Clooney plays Miles, a super-smooth, cynical divorce attorney who cleverly wins a case against serial-gold-digger Zeta-Jones. The two are (of course) attracted to each other; she appears to change her ways, and he becomes a believer in the power of love. They marry, and the twists and turns of the script have just begun.

For a silly diversion, it's fine; the co-stars are dazzling. Clooney certainly takes on the mantle of the new Cary Grant, while Zeta-Jones is a combination of Scarlett O'Hara and Bette Davis. They're a pleasure to watch, indeed; I just hoped for more of a realistic plot and less farce. There is only one joke in the movie that caused real guffaws (it involves a gun and an asthma inhaler). The rest of the film is a lovely, sometimes confusing, sometimes silly battle of the sexes. I left the theatre not being able to remember anything about it, but having greatly enjoyed George Clooney's close-ups.

Farce with a heart - screwball comedy ala brothers Coen
Lighter and more conventional than the films establishing their reputation (BLOOD SIMPLE, MILLER'S CROSSING, FARGO, etc.), INTOLERABLE CRUELTY nevertheless signals the Coen brothers' return to form after recent disappointments. Though the antagonists (played by George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones) are outlandishly cynical, the movie itself is not. No one is truly nasty in this story, only flawed (but deeply), and in true screwball tradition their innate human warmth endears them to us despite their mercenary attitudes toward love. Zeta-Jones and Clooney's battle is like the battles between Russell & Grant in HIS GIRL FRIDAY, or Hepburn & Tracy in PAT & MIKE. They never descend to the depraved meanspiritedness portrayed in deVito's WAR OF THE ROSES.

Zeta-Jones is delicious, giving us more in the flickering light in her eyes than most actors give at their most histrionic. (She's very nearly in William Hurt's class.) And in Clooney's performance I finally see the incipient charm for which some have compared him (a bit optimistically) to Archibald Leach himself. The supporting cast is top notch, too: Herrmann, Rush, Cedric, Duffy, Royce Applegate, and Jonathan Hadary are all splendid in their little roles. And Billy Bob Thornton finally gets to display his craft as a character actor again, coming through with a performance as fine as his faro-dealer in TOMBSTONE.

The script is deft - - witty without calling attention to itself, which is no mean feat given characters equally conversant with Shakespeare and first-growth Bordeaux wines. I especially admired Clooney's character's speech on love and marriage at the divorce lawyers' convention: emotional without sinking into sentimentality, morally focused but not preachy, a believable epiphany amidst farce. It is good to see the Coen brothers doing again what no other filmmaker has done so consistently. Perhaps they are the Aristophanes of our age.

As for the star rating, I would give 3 ½ stars if Amazon permitted, meaning that I liked more than a little even though it falls short of the Coens' best. Their best is very good, however, nearing and sometimes reaching greatness. And compared to the goblets of dreck usually served by Hollywood, INTOLERABLE CRUELTY is quite tolerable, surprisingly pleasing to the palate. Not Chateau Margaux, to be sure, but not a jug of Red Mountain, either. Perhaps this movie needs to breathe a bit after uncorking. Somehow I suspect it will improve with age, thus give it the benefit of the doubt and award 4 stars instead of 3.

The Limbo
The Coen brothers are best known for their hard comedies, fast paced movies with intelligent, crazy plots and characters, amazing speedy dialogues and unusual situations. Examples that fit this description are 'The hudsucker proxy', 'O Brother where art thou' and, most of all, the excellent 'Fargo'. Their last effort before the present feature, though, was not a comedy ' 'The man who wasn't there' - but more like a dark-looking movie, visually beautiful and great acting by Billy Bob Thornton, but too slow and depressing to be considered a comedy, more like a satire.

In 'Intolerable cruelty' they're back in their best genre, but there are some conception mistakes in it that makes it go to The Limbo of the forgettable movies.

The plot is somewhat funny in its own shallowness: Catherine Zeta Jones chases rich men, marry them and then tries to steal their money by means of law suits. George Clooney is the Pope of marital law, defending the fooled husbands.

The acting style resembles the one from 'O Brother...', but that movie was what in literature we would call a stereotypical farce. Besides, 'O Brother...' is based on the Odissey, so we have nothing to comment on the plot. This two thing summed up and made it a very good comedy. In 'Intolerable cruelty', this acting style didn't fit. The background is much too usual, and the viewer can't help but thinking the characters are silly. And I'm getting tired to watch Catherine ZJ ' gorgeous as always - repeating the usual femme fatale role.

The good parts are that the dialogue is still diabolically fast and witty, and some very funny situations make the whole audience laugh hard. And, most of all, Billy Bob Thornton as a nearly-incomprehensible texan.

The Coens have done much better. Hope they improve next time.

Grade 6.5/10

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