Intolerable Cruelty (2003) Reviews

• Perfectly tolerable...even enjoyable!

  Poseidon-32003-11-19

  No one in today's Hollywood is going to truly outshine past pairings such as Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly or even Rock Hudson and Doris Day. They simply had too much mystique and showbiz magic behind them for the tabloid-ridden stars of today to compete with. However, based on what's out there today, Clooney and Jones make a delicious, gorgeous pair. In this frothy, sometimes manic production, Clooney stars as an ace divorce attorney. So successful is he that he can turn around even the most airtight cases. Yet he has it all and is bored. After he pulls the rug out from under one of his clients' wives (Jones), she sets out to exact revenge upon him. The two play a cat and mouse game of I-got-you and you-got-me, with their actual feelings occasionally rising to the surface. Clooney is charm epitomized. His jaw-dropping good looks are actually beginning to show minor signs of wear (check out his cheek pores in that opening teeth cleaning sequence and note the onset of wrinkles and rasp in the voice -- though he still looks like a god in kind lighting), but thankfully, he's become such a decent actor that he should have no problem continuing a strong career. In this, he is comparable to Cary Grant, who remained attractive right up until his death. Unfortunately, he doesn't have QUITE the skill that Grant had, but he'll do. (Some of the lingo and jargon that Clooney has to emit looks and sounds like it's over his head.) Jones is astonishing. She has, without question, that old time glamour and the finely honed talent to carry her roles. Her face, clothes, hair...everything is stunning. Together, the two are blisteringly attractive and charismatic. The supporting cast is great here with Rush (in a surprisingly tiny role) hamming it up well and Thornton presenting another one of his oddball characterizations. Also of note are Cedric the Entertainer who is less annoying than expected and especially Adelstein as Clooney's adoring, sentimental cohort. (And it's fun to see Duffy get a big screen role which beautifully utilizes her brittle, nose-in-the-air persona.) One of the funniest and most shocking moments in the film comes courtesy of Keyes who plays an asthmatic hit man. The whole film is peppered with odd little characterizations, some funny, some intriguing, some just bizarre. (The diner waitress is hysterical. The hunky pool man is perfect. Clooney's boss is unintelligible and just plain weird.) The film seems to take place in it's own little world, which can sometimes be quite different from the one the rest of the audience lives in. The quirkiness and farcical nature of the film occasionally threaten to cross it over into Zucker brothers territory, but ultimately it keeps it's feet on the ground. A couple of familiar or dull moments can't dampen the spirit of the whole. The stars are deliriously attractive, the story has a few surprises along the way and the film is very easy on the eyes and often entertaining to the ear. There's also a delightful title sequence inspired by vintage Valentine cards.

• Not intolerable, but…

  warnerclassic2004-10-29

  George Clooney stars as a self-loving whiter than white toothed lawyer who is becoming bored with his never-ending success. A challenge comes in the shapely form of Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta Jones) who wants to marry (or preferably divorce) her way to riches. With Clooney hired to represent her soon to be ex husband, he inevitably falls for the gold diggers charms. Directed by the Coen brothers, a directorial team who have helmed oddball comedies such as 'Fargo' and 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' this is the team's first branch in to a high profile Hollywood film. Clooney, as the sharp suited lawyer, is excellent. Like Cary Grant or David Niven, Clooney is able to mock himself without compensating his screen appeal. Catherine Zeta Jones as the money hungry Marilyn is as sexy as her character demands from the scripted page. However, despite the quick fire dialogue, Intolerable Cruelty is simply not as funny as it thinks, it's cynical message of love and money taking away the romantic push it needs to place it in the league of the Tracy/Hepburn films the movie aspires to. Clooney's character also suffers from an over enthusiastic plot that later drives his character to attempt to commit a crime that totally contradicts the audiences perception of him. A battle of the sexes comedy that has sex appeal but no romance, Intolerable Cruelty is a film that reaches for the golden age of Hollywood but only touches the bronze.

• Far from their best work with a few weak spots but still an enjoyable farce

  bob the moo2003-11-08

  Miles Massey is an amazing divorce lawyer who has a well-earned reputation. When he takes on the case of Rex Rexroth, who was caught on video cheating with another woman, he successfully wins the case and leaves the wronged wife, Marylin, with nothing. However he also falls for her, but she is planning his downfall in return for her losing everything she had. With a big name pair of leads, it does look very much like the Coen's were looking for a big screen hit that would support their work to a greater extent than the loyal fan base does. As that sort of film, it seems to be doing OK, but, I wondered, at what cost to the product? The film starts well enough with an interesting case which we actually see little of, however the character of Miles is enough to hold the film together. The film contains the usual mix of larger than life characters and quirky humour, but the central romancing doesn't always hold true and there are stretches where the humour dips away to find that there is very little left without it. Having said that, this doesn't occur often enough to be a problem and the film is still pretty good fun. The characters are it's making and there are enough of those to make it work. Clooney excels in the lead with a strange sort of humour - the same sort of character he played in "O Brother" if you ask me, but he does seem to have a touch for the comic stuff. Jones is less assured and her character has less of the humour I expect from the Coens and is more of a straight role. The support cast is all good as they provide small snippets of humour, whether it be Wheezy Joe or the rude waitress. Overall it is not the cleverest film the Coen's have done, nor the funniest or most satisfying but, as a multiplex pleasing romance with quirky humour, it does work and should be enjoyed as that.

• Quite Tolerable After the Second Viewing:

  G_a_l_i_n_a2005-02-07

  I saw it recently for the second time, and even though the huge holes in the plot are still there, I liked it much more than the first time. Thinking of the holes, Coens are very talented artists - perhaps we, the audiences are supposed to be smarter than Miles Massey (George Clooney - perfectly cast) - the very successful, always victorious divorce attorney for the rich and famous? Massey is the author of unbreakable "Massey's Pre - Nup" but he is so bored and restless than maybe he is waiting for someone who would be able to break it? Enters cool and sensual Marylin Rexroth (who looks exactly like Catherine Zeta-Jones), the woman who is after "wealth, independence, and freedom" and who "eats the men like Massey for breakfast" with the glass of French red wine Château Margot, 1954. Thus starts the game of wills, wits and desires with twists in every turn. Some of them are surprising and clever, some - predictable. "Intolerable Cruelty" may not be the best Coens' film but it is enjoyable, stylish, and funny. At least two scenes closer to the end of the movie are absolutely hilarious.

• uneven film with a most beautiful lady

  Buddy-512003-10-25

  I doubt that there are two more strikingly attractive actors in movies today than George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Zeta-Jones, in particular, has the kind of classic beauty that puts her right up there with the great screen legends of all time, women like Ingrid Bergman, Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn, who, with their ravishing good looks and photogenic quality, came to define the ideal of female pulchritude in their time. Credit the Coen Brothers, who made `Intolerable Cruelty,' with having the good sense to know what they had in these two stars and for exploiting it to the full. They have allowed the actors to play off their good looks, most especially Ms. Zeta-Jones, portraying an icy gold-digger who specializes in marrying rich men with the express purpose of taking them for everything they've got once the marriage is ended. Clooney is the first-rate divorce lawyer who finally meets his match when he falls under the spell of this strangely bewitching woman. The major joy in `Intolerable Cruelty' comes from watching these two tremendously attractive stars go at one another – be it in lust, passion or anger. Miles and Marylin are both seasoned game-players and world-class manipulators who know how to get the better of the hapless victims who stumble headlong into their paths. Unfortunately, the film itself never lives up to its promise of becoming a slashing satire on the mores of our divorce-happy society. The main reason for this is that the script often shoots too low in its tone, opting for an overly broad, slapstick approach when a slyer, subtler style is what's really called for. It's not that `Intolerable Cruelty' doesn't provide its fair share of laughs; it's just that we feel there should be a whole lot more of them given the pedigree of the film's makers and the high-powered acting of its amazingly gifted cast. In addition to Clooney and Zeta-Jones – who hit all the right notes in their playing off one another – the lineup also includes Geoffrey Rush, Billy Bob Thornton, Edward Herrmann, Richard Jenkins and Cedric the Entertainer, who steals the few scenes he's in with his manic interpretation of a private investigator who specializes in capturing wayward spouses in compromising positions. Perhaps, `Intolerable Cruelty,' for all its moments of mirth and fun, simply doesn't go far enough into the realm of outrageousness to make the concept really work. The Coen Brothers, who have proven themselves masters of the absurd in the past, for some reason seem to be holding back in this film, going for the easy laugh and the easy sentiment when what we really want is for them to cut loose and go for the jugular (as Danny De Vito did with similar material in `The War of the Roses' so many years ago). Maybe Miles and Marylin need to be a little more nasty, a trifle more cutthroat in their demeanor to bring it all to life. `Intolerable Cruelty' offers some hearty chuckles and some definite eye-candy in the person of Ms. Zeta-Jones, but, when all is said and done, the film is mainly just promises and not enough delivery.