Intolerable Cruelty
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY (12)
D: Joel Coen
Universal/Imagine (Ethan Coen & Brian
Grazer)
US 2003
95 mins
Comedy
W: Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, Joel Coen & Ethan
Coen
DP: Roger Deakins
Ed: Roderick Jaynes
Mus: Carter Burwell
PD: Leslie McDonald
Cos: Mary Zophres
George Clooney (Miles Massey), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Marilyn
Hamilton Rexroth Doyle Massey), Geoffrey Rush (Donovan Donaly), Cedric The Entertainer (Gus Petch), Edward Herrmann (Rex Rexroth), Richard Jenkins (Freddy Bender), Billy Bob Thornton (Howard
Doyle)
I'm a big fan of the Coen Brothers work, but this is
without doubt their weakest film (yes, it's worse than The Ladykillers) and prompts the assumption that they only made it to exhaust a studio contract (perhaps).
George Clooney does his tiresome Cary Grant act as a
divorce lawyer who wins a case against gold-digger Catherine Zeta-Jones, who then plots her revenge, double-crossing him for his fortune.
You'd think Zeta-Jones would be perfect casting for a
gold-digger but I simply found her character absolutely grotesque, even for black comedy standards.
If you're not a fan of the Coen's avoid this completely,
even die-hard fans of the filmmakers would agree that this is the worst film they've put their names to.
4/10
