Film Review: Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

5 months ago

(source: tmdb.org)

Coen Brother have built their reputation in the world of independent cinema with low budget quirky films that differed in genres but always contained very personal touch. But, like so many such film makers, Coens gradually became part of the Hollywood mainstream and with big stars and big budgets came artistic compromises making their films indistinguishable from big budget mediocrity. This process was gradual, but it became impossible to ignore following 2003 comedy Intolerable Cruelty.

The plot is set in Los Angeles or, to be more precise, section of the city that is home to the rich, famous and powerful. Many of those people are married and many of such marriages end in divorces resulting in one of the spouses winning or losing everything. Person who can help spouses win is Miles Massey (played by George Clooney), city’s top divorce attorney whose talent and creativity resulted in “Massey pre-nup”, prenuptial agreement that serves as perfect defence for spouse who wants to preserve wealth. Massey is hired by Rex Rexroth (played by Edward Herrmann), wealthy husband who has been caught in flagranti delicto while cheating his wife Marylin (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones). Despite damning photographic evidence Massey is certain that he would win favourable outcome for his client and he does so by successful character assassination of Marylin, which isn’t that hard, since she has reputation of ruthless “gold digger” who marries and divorces wealthy men for money. Marylin feels humiliated and swears revenge and the life for Massey will be complicated because he has fallen in love with her.

Some critics interpreted Intolerable Cruelty as Coen Brothers’ homage to screwball comedies of Classic Hollywood. This impression is difficult to evade since Coens’ good friend George Clooney, who plays main role, does everything in his power to play slick and suave divorce attorney in a manner of legendary Cary Grant. His efforts to have the same impact as Grant had in his great films many decades earlier fail, just like Catherine Zeta-Jones fails to add anything to the film apart from her exotic presence. Reason could be found in poor quality of humour and many jokes that simply don’t work. Another might be in large number of characters that instead of being quirky or funny are simply irritating, like the private investigator Gus Petch, played by Cedric the Entertainer. And even the two main characters aren’t exactly likable, at least to the viewers who are more cynical and resistant to power of stars when playing roles of arrogant, greedy and amoral upper class people. While Intolerable Cruelty does have occasional bright moment, like the one in which Marylin’s new husband, a Texas oilman played by Billy Bob Thornton, eats “Massey pre-nup” as a expression of love, the general impression is mostly disappointing. Failure of Intolerable Cruelty, on the other hand, isn’t that surprising, because the Coens wrote wasn’t original and wasn’t exactly theirs. They were brought by producer Brian Grazer as hired guns to help with the script which had been written and re-written by three other people and languished in development hell for a almost a decade. Coens are talented, but in this case weren’t talented enough to overcome flaws of Hollywood mainstream. While watchable, Intolerable Cruelty doesn’t deserve recommendation.

RATING: 3/10 (+)