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

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:

In this film, George Clooney plays a talkative character who is vain about his teeth. In his previous Coen Brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), he plays a talkative character who is vain about his hair.

Goofs:

Continuity: After his keynote speech in the NOMAN convention, he tucks in his shirt and heads for a bar. As he walks up to the bar counter, you can see that his shirt is once again untucked.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Features La bête humaine (1938)

Soundtrack:

After Hours

uneven film with a most beautiful lady

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.