Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Joel Coen

Writers (WGA):

Robert Ramsey (story) &
Matthew Stone (story) ...

Release Date:

10 October 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | Crime

Tagline:

A romantic comedy with bite.

Plot:

A revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverly Hills lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce.

Plot Keywords:

Divorce | Lawyer | Battle Of The Sexes | Oil Tycoon | Gold Digger

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

George Clooney	...	Miles
Catherine Zeta-Jones	...	Marylin
Geoffrey Rush	...	Donovan Donaly
Cedric the Entertainer	...	Gus Petch
Edward Herrmann	...	Rex Rexroth
Paul Adelstein	...	Wrigley
Richard Jenkins	...	Freddy Bender
Billy Bob Thornton	...	Howard D. Doyle
Julia Duffy	...	Sarah Sorkin
Jonathan Hadary	...	Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy
Tom Aldredge	...	Herb Myerson
Stacey Travis	...	Bonnie Donaly
Jack Kyle	...	Ollie Olerud
Irwin Keyes	...	Wheezy Joe
Judith Drake	...	Mrs. Gutman

Also Known As:

Intolerable (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language and brief violence.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

UK:12 (video rating) (2003) | UK:12A (original rating) | Iceland:L | Malaysia:U | France:U | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Canada:PG (Canadian Home Video rating) | Chile:TE | Finland:K-7 | Germany:12 (bw) | Netherlands:MG6 | Norway:11 | Peru:PT | Philippines:PG-13 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | USA:PG-13 (No. 39509)

Filming Locations:

Caesar's Palace - 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

When Weezy Joe shoots himself, the glass behind him has a hole in the shape of a heart where the bullet went through.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Miles and Marlyin are eating dinner in the restaurant, Marylin is holding her wine glass around the bowl. In the next shot, she is then holding it by the stem.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Donovan Donaly: [singing] I'm just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told.

Movie Connections:

References "Days of Our Lives" (1965)

Soundtrack:

Don't Cry Out Loud

Back to form.

I had been slightly disappointed with the Coens' previous *The Man Who Wasn't There* -- it was, in my judgment, their first non-masterpiece since their apprentice-work *Blood Simple*. While all their films are self-consciously derivative, *Wasn't There* was derivative without the wit (though brilliantly filmed and acted regardless).

*Intolerable Cruelty* is a return to a less fussy Coen style. It's lean, mean, to the point, no wasted scenes. And it's very witty, featuring dialogue and references that have clearly sailed over the average idiot's head, as well as the fairweather Coen Brothers fan's head. Joel and Ethan remind us here that a mainstream IDEA for a movie is not equivalent to a STUPID idea for a movie. The movie mixes wild slapstick with delicious bon mots. There's always something going on. And the picture looks fantastic (another triumph for DP Roger Deakins), showing us a shimmering, sunlit paradise of an almost mythical Los Angeles. The leads, George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones, are also shot to advantage: neither have looked better, and Zeta Jones in particular practically sucks your breath away every time she appears in a different Rodeo Drive confection. Yowza!

The film failed, as almost all Coen Brothers' movies fail, at the box office because, while delightful and funny, it's also ICE-COLD. The filmmakers, as they always do, distance us from the characters, inviting us to contemplate them rather than to get emotionally involved with them. This is a formula for box-office disaster, especially for romantic comedy. The women-demographic who came expecting a chick-flick were turned off cold, and the guys stayed away, anyway. Coen Brothers "fans" once again proved to be a fickle bunch, lambasting the film as too "mainstream" while utterly failing to get the subtext. These are the same "fans", by the way, who avoided *Lebowski* and *Hudsucker* and *Barton Fink* because it was too "excessive" and/or "weird". Make up your minds, fairweathers. In any case, I'll be one of the "I-Told-You-Sos" when, a decade hence, *Intolerable Cruelty* will be regarded as one of the few intelligent romantic comedies made in recent times.

Let me put it this way: if you think a movie in which the two romantic leads put a contract on each other is too "mainstream", you've revealed yourself as a poseur who should leave the amateur reviewing to the grown-ups. Have a nice day.