Intolerable Cruelty Review
by Rose 'Bams' Cooper (bams AT 3blackchicks DOT com)October 13th, 2003
'3BlackChicks Review...'
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY (2003)
Rated PG-13; running time 100 minutes
Studio: Universal Pictures
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Seen at: Eastwood Neighborhood Cinema Group (Lansing, Michigan) Official site: http://www.INTOLERABLECRUELTY.com/
IMDB site: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138524/combined Written by: Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen Directed by: Joel Coen
Cast: George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cedric the Entertainer, Billy Bob Thornton, Geoffrey Rush, Paul Adelstein, Tom Aldredge, Edward Herrmann, Irwin Keyes, Julia Duffy
Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2003
Review URL:
http://www.3blackchicks.com/2003reviews/bamsintolerable.html
Dear lord, it was Intolerable, alright. INTOLERABLE CRUELTY was bad enough to make me want to rush back and watch RAISING ARIZONA and O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? again - just to restore my faith in the Coen Brothers.
THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**)
His molar fetish aside, Miles Massey (George Clooney) is a bored divorce lawyer. Sure, because of his reputation as the Divorce Lawyer's Divorce Lawyer, he has the admiration of his cow-orkers, including his faithful assistant, Wrigley (Paul Adelstein), and crotchety old boss, Herb (Tom Aldredge). And sure, due to his lucrative business with his rich clientele, Miles has wealth untold. With the help of Gus Petch, Ass-Nailer (Cedric the Entertainer), Miles' warped mind allows him to invent wild tales that ruin the lives of philandering spouses like TV producer Donovan Donnelly (Geoffrey Rush), or bring "wronged" spouses like Sara Sorkin (Julia Duffy) more money than they literally know what to do with. But Miles feels he's missing something from his life: a sense of purpose, of meaning. Of challenge.
Challenge just walked in the door, in the guise of Marylin Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the oft-wed current wife of Miles' new client, Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann). When Miles gets in the way of gaining her "fair share" of Rex's wealth, Marylin regroups, and pursues Howard D. Doyle, Hick Millionaire (Billy Bob Thornton). By this time, Miles becomes inexplicably smitten with Marylin, and proceeds to pursue her for himself. And of course, Wackiness Ensues. Yeah.
THE UPSHOT
I had every reason to have liked INTOLERABLE CRUELTY. I love the Coen Brothers' previous works, especially the aforementioned ARIZONA and O BROTHER. And both of George Clooney's and Catherine Zeta-Jones' best films to date - O BROTHER and CHICAGO - hold a prominent place on my DVD shelf. But something about the trailer for this flick gave me pause; I realized it was Clooney's seeming replication of his O BROTHER schtick in those few minutes in the trailer, that raised my hackles. But even I couldn't foresee how deep that replication would run throughout the entire movie. And not just on Clooney's part.
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY felt like an unfunny, unoriginal retread from start to finish. Its lack of nuance was only eclipsed by its painful attempts at Screwball Comedy; when Miles and his assistant, Wrigley (Paul Adelstein) went into a lame "Who's On First?" routine, the audience I was in collectively squirmed in our seats. And I'm not sure where they got the idea that Funny Names mean instant laughs ("Rex Rexroth"? Ha.), because they fell as flat as the rest of the throwaway gags.
INTOLERABLE utterly failed to make me care one whit about its cardboard characters. Now granted, I have little care for the Lifestyles Of The Sick And Shameless. If these bored little rich folks slid into the ocean (and took Beverly Hills with them), I would barely notice. So you'll forgive me if I shed no tears for Miles' Pain. Even with that, though, I'm sure I would've laughed if a humorous situation presented itself. To be fair, I did. Once, near the end of the movie, in the Wacky Sitcom scene involving Miles, Wrigley, and Wheezy Joe (Irwin Keyes). Ergo, the lack of a straight-up redlight rating.
I'll say this much for Clooney; he tried hard to make this movie work. The strain to carry this INTOLERABLE flick on his shoulders must've been a hard burden to carry; I bet he had flashbacks of BATMAN AND ROBIN running through his mind. Maybe that's where INTOLERABLE CRUELTY went wrong; unlike this flick, in O BROTHER, Clooney also had the appreciable shoulders of John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, and John Goodman bearing their end of the load.
This is not a riff on Catherine Zeta-Jones, for whom I have a great deal of admiration. But she, like the rest of the dumb-as-they-come characters here, seemed less like supporting members of the cast, and more like stationary walls for the Coens to bounce Miles' tennis balls off of. Without a real sense of purpose (that goofy Greed Is Good-like speech aside) or character depth, INTOLERABLE CRUELTY floundered like a fish out of water.
Combine all this with a see-through plot, and you have a reviewer who ran, screaming, to the nearest video store to purge the memory of this movie from her memory banks. Maybe I'll just have to tell myself that INTOLERABLE CRUELTY is the Coen Brother's HUDSUCKER PROXY for the 21st century.
BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE
Intolerable. Cruelly.
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY rating: flashing redlight
Rose "Bams" Cooper
Webchick and Editor,
3BlackChicks Review
Entertainment Reviews With Flava!
Copyright Rose Cooper, 2003
EMAIL: [email protected]
http://www.3blackchicks.com/
More on 'Intolerable Cruelty'...
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
