Review of:Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
Director:Joel Coen
Rating:PG-13 for sexual content, language and brief violence
Starring:George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cedric the Entertainer, Geoffrey Rush, Billy Bob Thornton
Love is one of those emotions that is at times hard to attain. Demands of the job, or the pressure of being successful at times supplement that emotion. The film Intolerable Cruelty takes that subject matter, mixes in the likes of George Clooney, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and does its best to make us laugh about it.
This romantic comedy pits Miles Massey (George Clooney) a highly touted divorce lawyer, against Marylin Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a soon to be divorcee. Through both of their preconceived belief systems a spark of love is seeded. The question that remains is can they put aside their fear to attain it.
Director Joel Coen (O’ brother, Where art thou) tries to bring the same hilarity into this film with average success. The chemistry between the two main actors is there, but somehow the film didn’t seem comfortable. You know what I mean. There are times that you watch a romantic film, and you leave it feeling that you know the characters better than they know themselves. These characters are lost from the beginning, and even in the end that feeling seems to come through on the screen.
The best part of the film would have to be Cedric The Entertainer as Gus Petch. His only purpose in life seems to be to take videos of cheating spouses, and he is a man that loves his work. Whenever he’s in the picture the film goes to a new level.
Clooney and Jones do a good job, and I believe that with a little more polish the film would have been one of my favorites for the year.
