MOVIE REVIEW

Intolerable Cruelty  (2003)

Starring: George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Director: Joel Coen

Rating: PG-13

Studio: Universal

Release Date: 10.10.03

Review Posted: 10.10.03

Spoilers: Minor

By Sara M. Fetters

Nothing "Cruel" About Coen’s Latest Laugh-Fest

There is a rumor going around that the Joel and Ethan Coen (“Fargo”) are selling out with their latest film “Intolerable Cruelty,” going mainstream Hollywood because they’re working for über-producer Brian Grazer (“A Beautiful Mind,” “Parenthood”) and Universal Studios. Truth be told, they’ve been trying to sell out for years. They made “The Hudsucker Proxy” for producer Joel Silver (“The Matrix,” “Lethal Weapon”) and Warner Bros., and have also done countless un-credited re-writes on numerous studio pictures over the years.

The thing about them quote-quote “selling out” is, they suck at it. Every time they’ve tried, the resulting film still comes with the unhinged sensibilities and oft-kilter reality of a movie taking place firmly in a universe that is most decidedly the Coen’s. Which is exactly what happens here with this romantic comedy starring George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. While “Intolerable Cruelty” is essentially just a director-for-hire job for the Coens, the resulting film is nothing less than the single funniest and surreally sensational movie to be released this year. It’s also so strange and loopy, I’m not quite sure mainstream audiences bludgeoned into accepting every venal Hollywood byproduct that comes down the line can accept it. Here’s hoping they do.

The set-up is pure old-school Hollywood. Miles Massey (Clooney) is a suave, fast-talking divorce attorney so good at what he does he even has an unbreakable prenuptial agreement named after him. (“There’s an entire semester devoted to it at Harvard,” says a cloyingly modest Massey, the whole time a nest of pure egotism beaming behind his eyes.) He’s never met a louse of a husband or a witch of a wife he can’t take to the cleaners for the others former significant only, and if he has to bend the truth along the way to get the restitution he’s after so be it. All fair, after all, in bitterness and divorce settlements.

The blowhard with a tooth fetish meets his match in one Marilyn Rexroth (Zeta-Jones). Her entire life has been spent on finding just the right rich rube to marry and then divorce, securing a future of obscenely wealthy independence. But when Miles triumphs over her with embarrassing ease in court leaving her with nothing, her philandering dope of an ex Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann, “The Emperor’s Club”) getting away scott free, Marilyn vows to get even with the shrewdly brilliant lawyer. Massey, meanwhile, is completely infatuated with this gold digger of a siren, enraptured by her beauteous charm.

Faster than one can say Tracy/Hepburn, the two are sparring verbally just like two old-fashioned movie stars. But, even though there is an undeniable sexual attraction, can two venal, money-grubbing, well-healed modern day aristocrats find love, especially considering their unrepentantly cynical take on the subject? Do they even deserve to?

“Intolerable Cruelty” is one flat-out funny movie. Like Billy Wilder (“Some Like it Hot,” “Sabrina”) and Howard Hawks (“Gentleman Prefer Blondes,” “His Girl Friday”), whom did some of their best work as directors for hire, the Coen’s manage to somehow fit inside the studio mold yet keep their own unbridled originality. They’ve taken the tried-and-true romantic comedy and given it their own fresh spin, crafting moments and situations that are at once completely outlandish yet somehow still deeply affecting. This is a grand romantic adventure filled with witty dialogue and supremely delirious sight gags, and is by far the flat-out funniest movie they’ve made since The Dude trolled the big screen searching for a White Russiona and some Thai Stick in “The Big Lebowski.”

As per usual for the brothers, they’ve cast their film with impeccable relish. Geoffrey Rush (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) is a wonder as greasy Aussie television producer with the malicious foresight to take pictures of his own bloody rear, while Coen regular Richard Jenkins (“The Core”) regurgitates with a mousy queasiness every time he has to face shyster Massey in court. Cedric the Entertainer pops up as an undiscriminating private investigator obsessed with nailing people’s asses, and former “Newhart” regular Julia Duffy nails her role as Marilyn’s leathery skinned-confidant in gold-digging skullduggery. She has a monologue about what it means to be a single woman loaded with money that’s pure Coen genius; at once giggle-inducing funny while at the same time head-shakingly sad and full of regret.

But this is the star’s show all the way. Zeta-Jones displays a gift for romantic comedy that, up till now, has been eluding her. What with misfires like “America’s Sweethearts” and “Entrapment” on her resume, I was starting to believe she couldn’t do romance. While gifted at drama, action and song – as much as I was pulling for Streep, she deserved that Oscar for “Chicago” last year – an ability to display love and devotion in a comical fashion has been beyond her reach. No longer. She’s great as Marilyn, displaying a fiery repartee standing tall in her Manolo Blahniks with Clooney that’s reminiscent of Katherine Hepburn.

Clooney is even better, though. Claiming he though of Miles as a contemptuous descendant of Everett McGill (the slack-jawed yokel he played to magnificent effect in the Coen’s “O Brother. Where Art Thou?”), his Miles is a self-absorbed oaf full of charm and joi de vive but absent a human conscience. Marilyn makes him rethink all of that, leading him down a path of self-discovery he’d rather not take, looking for a detour off the map of love every chance he can get. Clooney is fast becoming one of the best, most well-rounded actors of this generation, a good-looking movie star with the acting ability to back it up the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Robert Redford in his heyday.

As per usual, the Coen’s technical superiority is superb. Longtime cinematographer (how has this man not won an Oscar?) Roger Deakins paints the movie lovingly, framing each scene in sharp, vibrantly bouncy hues that almost vault off the celluloid. Carter Burwell adds to his list of great, signature scores for the duo while Leslie McDonald’s production design is pitch-perfect first frame to last.

But it is the Coen’s script that’s really something else. “Intolerable Cruelty” was never meant as a feature for the brothers to direct, only just a re-write job they were hired to do by Universal. Yet, it languished in their vaults for years, no other directors or stars willing to attach themselves to the arch and stylized project. It took producer Grazer and friend Clooney to finally convince the duo to do it themselves. Lucky for us, for this is the way old-school romance was done in Hollywood and the Coens know how to get it almost exactly right first frame to last. The banter is reminiscent of classics like “The Philadelphia Story” and “Desk Set,” so quick and razor sharp you could cut your finger on the laughs.

It’s not going to appeal to every taste, though, and not all of it works like I kept hoping it would. Like “Barton Fink” and “Raising Arizona,” this movie is super-stylized in a way only the Coens can do (just wait until Clooney’s letch of a boss appears and you’ll know what I mean). It’s also brazenly cynical about the healing nature of love and it’s nearly impossible to believe these two can really stick together trough thick and thin after the credits role. What more, I’m not sure we’re supposed to believe they are going to, the brothers almost daring us to accept this conniving duo’s love at face value. Also, they waste Billy Bob Thornton (“The Man Who Wasn’t There”) in a needless supporting role, the surprise surrounding his character nothing astounding. (Although, I must admit, I did giggle unmercifully during his BBQ sauce engorgement.)

Granted, those aren’t major problems, and “Intolerable Cruelty” is so darn funny I could really care less about them. This is a wonderfully comical movie and it brazenly bares the Coen’s unmistakable signature. How it plays with audiences, your guess is as good as mine, but if this is what happens when Joel and Ethan Coen sell out, here’s one vote for them to do it more often.

Rating: êêê1/2  (out of 4)

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