Review of Intolerable Cruelty (2003) by Brett H — 08 Feb 2016

Far more mainstream and straight-forward than usual for the Coen Brothers, Intolerable Cruelty is a sharp, satire on the institution of marriage and it has more than enough wit to make it worth watching.

Clooney and Zeta-Jones rock the screen like pros with effortless chemistry and their verbal chess matches are easily the highlight of the film; dialogue is the Coens' forté and it shows here! The story follows a divorce attorney who always wins and is rarely challenged by the system, until he meets his match in a recent divorceé who has made it an art to marry men, then take them for everything they've got.

From there it's screwball antics with each person trying to outsmart the other while simultaneously becoming attracted to one another and you get the idea. Unlike most of the Coens' work there is no darkness here and amazingly only one person dies, but I think they wanted to try something a bit lighter, but still infuse it with snappy dialogue and one great twist I didn't see coming.

There are some dumb moments like the opening bit with Geoffrey Rush and I thought you could've taken, Cedric the Entertainer's character completely out of it but the main focus is on Clooney and Zeta-Jones, and it works.

Not a Coen Brothers film I would watch again as it just doesn't compare to their other work, but for a deviation from their usual stuff; it's solid!