Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

A beautiful gold digger matches wits with a shrewd Beverly Hills divorce lawyer who is increasingly attracted to her.

Directors:

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (uncredited)

Writers:

Robert Ramsey (story), Matthew Stone (story)

Stars:

George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Bob Thornton

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

Miles Massey, a prominent Los Angeles divorce attorney has everything--and in some cases, two of everything. Despite his impressive client list, a formidable win record, the respect of his peers and an ironclad contract (the Massey pre-nup) named after him, he's reached a crossroads in his life. Sated on success, boredom has set in and he's looking for new challenges. All that changes when Miles meets his match in the devastating Marylin Rexroth. Marylin is the soon-to-be ex-wife of his client Rex Rexroth, a wealthy real estate developer and habitual philanderer. With the help of hard charging private investigator Gus Petch, she has Rex nailed and is looking forward to the financial independence a successful divorce will bring. But thanks to Miles' considerable skills, she ends up with nothing. Not to be outdone, Marylin schemes to get even and as part of her plan, quickly marries oil tycoon Howard Doyle. Miles and his unflappable associate, Wrigley, unwittingly dig themselves in ...

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Plot Keywords:

reference to henry viii | woman wears eyeglasses | deception | neo screwball comedy | divorce | 

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Taglines:

Engage the enemy.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Official Site U.I.P. France [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

10 October 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Intolerable

Filming Locations:

L'Orangerie - 903 North La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,525,075, 12 October 2003, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$35,327,628

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$120,217,409

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures,Imagine Entertainment,Alphaville Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS (8 channels)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Miles's line, "Whoever loved that loved not at first sight" is from Christopher Marlowe's poem "Hero and Leander".

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Goofs

When Miles tears up his speech, he only tears it once, vertically. Shortly afterward, we can see over his shoulder onto the podium, and the remains of the speech are visible, but it is in quarters.

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Quotes

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

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Crazy Credits

Adios SEÑOR GREAZER. Hello MISTER HAND.

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Connections

References The Palm Beach Story (1942)

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Soundtracks

The Glory of Love
(1926)
Written by Billy Hill
Performed by Big Bill Broonzy
Courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

User Reviews

Pure cruelty indeed, a dying seal is more funny.

Imagine yourself and the misses going to a restaurant where after ordering, the waiter will personally force-feed the ordered dish to you with a rusty spoon, at gunpoint.

That pretty much is the experience you get watching Intolerable Clooneyty. The clownesque prefabricated hurls of laughter are being shoved down your throat at a punchline-per-second rate. Ultimately giving u little time to think about what you are watching which may well be its incentive to cover up the naked emperor standing in front of u, shamelessly waving his procreational tools in your face.

Talk about restaurants, take in mind the scene with Clooney and Jones exchanging the one-liners as if it was a ping-pong game which, like with all games, in the end will also have a loser…..why do that? Why deliberately have a flaw on your hands ? I would have granted Jones the siege, but it was Clooney, good for him. Too bad it made Jones look like she couldn't act. Not that that's true, or is it? I'm not sure anymore.

Shortly after that we have the discomforting, Giles de la Tourette inspired, one-liners contest in the courtroom. Supposedly funny but painstakingly embarrassing with perhaps the most corny word-joke in the history of film-making. The list really just goes on and on.

Clooney, Jones and a score of familiar others in the acting business go out of their way to make complete fools of themselves in yet another meager tale screenplayed and directed by the Coen Brothers. Movies of Batman are less cartoonesqeu than the joke which is Intolerable Cruelty. And where was leslie Nielsen to push the queen of England of the stairway?

Of what I don't know, but this was a parody I hope? In any case it only pushed itself as far as embarrassment goes. The only laugh I had during this mockery was the scene where Clooney opened up a magazine, apparently containing indecently exposed senior naturalists, turning two pages 90 degrees to show a full blown close up playboy-style. That really did it for me...

Truly abysmal, neither Jones nor Clooney had any business being in this movie, and this movie had no business being on my screen.

O/10!