Intolerable Cruelty

Synopsis: Miles Massey (George Clooney) is a smooth and successful Los Angeles divorce attorney. No skeleton in the closet or beautiful young girlfriend is too difficult for him for him to buff away. That is until Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones) walks into his life.

Intolerable Cruelty is a mildly amusing rom-com with a few chuckles to be had along the way but which given the Coens’ exemplary track record. is lacking in pizazz.  Perhaps it was the influence of Brian Grazer, who has a string of box-office hits under his belt, as producer but more immediately, I suspect it is down to the script, credit for which the Coens for some reason shared with Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone two writers who had collaborated on a handful of unremarkable comedies prior to this.

Although the film’s poster leads us to expect some kind of The War of the Roses (1989) torrid love-hate tussle Intolerable Cruelty simply doesn’t generate the one-on-one intensity that made that film work. Instead the plot proceeds in large narrative chunks, each inverting its predecessor cleverly enough but without building heat before quickly coming to a stop with a rather banal ending. Although The War of the Roses proceeded in a similar fashion, Danny De Vito's recounting character bound the leap-frogging story together in a way that would have benefited this film.

With the film owing much to the screwball comedies of the 1930s George Clooney does a winning Cary Grant imitation but Catherine Zeta-Jones is underwhelming in a role which would have been perfect for Kathleen Turner in her day. Geoffrey Rush has a small and undistinguished part as an Australian television producer and Billy Bob Thornton and Richard Jenkins also have minor roles.  .

Although passable enough in its own right for Coen fans Intolerable Cruelty will be quite a disappointment.

 

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