Intolerable Cruelty Review
by David N. Butterworth (dnb AT dca DOT net)October 14th, 2003
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2003 David N. Butterworth
*1/2 (out of ****)
There was a time, probably around 1998 when "The Big Lebowski" bowled into theaters, when I truly believed that a lackluster Coen Brothers
movie still stood head and shoulders above your typical Hollywood "A" product. I felt the same way two years later when their "O Brother, Where
Art Thou?" surfaced. And I convinced myself further a year later following
the release of "The Man Who Wasn't There."
But I don't believe that anymore.
"Intolerable Cruelty," a film that is occasionally cruel and almost entirely
intolerable, nails the Coen's coffin well and truly shut. It illustrates, once
and for all, how the mighty have fallen. And it confirms the suspicions I
had about their previous two efforts--my instincts *were* good after all.
The perfect "Fargo" (a quintessential Coen Brothers movie that I enjoyed again the other night) ends with the standard disclaimer that any resemblance between real people living or dead is purely coincidental (turns out their "based on a true story" opener was pure Coen hokum). Likewise, any resemblance between "Intolerable Cruelty" and a Coen Brothers movie is also purely coincidental. OK, so George Clooney, as super slick divorce attorney Miles Massey, pretty much plays the same character he played in "O Brother…"--there’s one similarity. Ulysses Everett McGill was a dapper sort obsessed with his hair; in "Cruelty," Miles is obsessed with his dental work. But there’s little else that reminded me I was in Coen territory.
While Miles is a stock Coen rehash already Clooney, at least, relishes
the opportunity to embellish a former character and his ebullient performance is one of the film's few saving graces. The other is Catherine Zeta-Jones. She's a knockout--and drop-dead gorgeous--as cold-blooded gold digger Marylin Rexroth whom Miles falls for. Hard. Supporting characters (played by Edward Herrmann, Cedric the Entertainer, Billy Bob Thornton, and Julia Duffy to name a few) come and go like a neap tide but they’re mostly unmemorable, like Carter Burwell's score or Roger Deakins’ cinematography (Coen regulars these).
"Intolerable Cruelty" is supposed to be a screwball romance in that Preston Sturges mold, although to say that is an insult to Sturges. Part of
the problem might be that the story (and subsequent screenplay) is not, for the first time, credited solely to the Coens (although I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone are pseudonyms for the duplicitous pair). Delicious dialogue has always been a Coen forte yet there's no lather worth working ourselves up into here. Even their trademark wit is largely absent. There are a few funny lines but mostly it's painful goin--the opening sequence, for example, which features top-billed Geoffrey Rush, is one of the worst pre-credits sequences I have seen in decades. Rush quickly disappears from the scene only to re-emerge in two 15-second spots later on in the film. The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star’s truncated role might be telling--perhaps
nervous executives were as dissatisfied with the film as I was.
For fans of creative cinema, let's hope the heavy-on-style, heavy-on-smugness "Intolerable Cruelty" is simply a bump in the road for the Coens and that their next film (a remake of the classic Ealing Studios
black comedy "The Ladykillers") will re-establish their reputation as two of
today's most innovative filmmakers. Otherwise I might be forced to rent "Raising Arizona" for the gazillionth time…
--
David N. Butterworth
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