Catherine Zeta Jones Movie:

Editorial Review:
A sleek George Clooney and a seductive Catherine Zeta-Jones square off magnificently in the divorce comedy Intolerable Cruelty. The plot is simple: Lawyer supreme Miles Massey (Clooney, Out of Sight, Ocean's Eleven) skillfully outmaneuvers gold-digger Marylin Rexroth (Zeta-Jones, Chicago, Traffic) when she divorces her wealthy husband--and she sets out to get revenge. But this movie comes from the creative minds of the Coen Brothers (Fargo, Raising Arizona, O Brother Where Art Thou?), and so Intolerable Cruelty includes a Scottish wedding chapel in Vegas, an asthmatic hit man, fluffy-dog-stroking European nobility, and a legendarily unbreakable pre-nuptial agreement. Still, it's pretty restrained for the Coens; smooth and consistent, it never stumbles as disappointingly as their movies can, but also never quite hits the operatic pitch of their best work. It's still damn funny, though, with top-notch performances from the leads as well as Geoffrey Rush, Cedric the Entertainer, and Billy Bob Thornton. --Bret Fetzer

Intolerable Cruelty [Region 2] Reviews:
Not at all worth it
2009-09-06 - I saw this movie in the theater, and it was one of the very few I've ever considered walking out on. I'm not that hard to please. I'm willing to suspend disbelief. I'm not that demanding. But I could not get into this one at all. Right from the beginning, there were no characters I cared a bit about. Maybe the acting was great. But if you hate the leads, what's the point?

Time has (thankfully) dulled my memory of the details of this film, so I just remember it as mean-spirited and terribly uninteresting. If there were someone I was cheering on, maybe I could take it. (Who could really imagine this with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, as another reviewer mentioned. Really?). My friend and I were about to leave the theater when a totally random line (someone singing "I wish I was a Kellogg's cornflake") made us laugh, and we sat out the rest. I really wish we hadn't. Maybe I'd find something to like in it a second time through, but the first impression has really kept me from coming back to this one.

Tolerable Cruelty...Coen Bros. 101
2009-02-15 - I kept waiting for INTOLERABLE CRUELTY to become a real Coen Brothers movie. What it wound up coming closest to was a sort of Coen Brothers knock-off. If I'd learned it was the work of Coen wannabes, it'd have made sense. And as a star vehicle for George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones, it's not bad. And it has plenty of humorous bits. (I'll be sure to think twice before next using my asthma inhaler). Visually, it seems to be the least striking of the brothers efforts. You couldn't be faulted for wondering if Roger Deakins, the Coens' regular cinematographer hadn't sat this one out. But like his cohorts on the directorial end of things, he really WAS there--though maybe not fully invested in the project.

As a screwball comedy, CRUELTY seems a much more conventional genre flick than, say, the earlier HUDSUCKER PROXY. Its reputation as the Coens' most mainstream effort is pretty well deserved. On the other hand, it's still quietly subversive. If Clooney and Zeta-Jones drip star power throughout, it doesn't erase the fact that neither is particularly likeable. But with stars of that magnitude, it actually may take a little while to realize that you really don't care for them as people. They charm the audience just about as effectively as they charm everyone else in the movie AND each other.

Like most screwball comedies, the movie ends happily (and this can't be a spoiler for anyone at this point, can it?) Perhaps, I should say, happily enough. Who knows what's in store for these two actually. They may continue to scheme against each other for the rest of their godforaken lives. Old habits die hard, after all. Still they look great together. And deserve each other in every sense.

Friends who are not quite as smitten with the Coen oeuvre as I am have commented on how much they actually LIKE this film. That may be INTOLERABLE CRUELTY'S most subversive quality. If it gets people to look anew at FARGO, LEBOWSKI, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and rest of the brothers' more "difficult" work, it will have done its (dirty)job well indeed. As a 101 level course in a Coen Bros. Studies curriculum, it ain't half bad.

Lower your expectations and enjoy it
2008-06-15 - Considering that the majority of reviews are 1 star, one would think this was "Are We There Yet?" or "Cat in the Hat" (the Mike Myers version) awful. Please people. I realize that movie goers have come to expect brilliance from the Coen brothers at every turn, but this is far from the wretched mess so many people claim.
It reminds me of the movies from years long past that were simply charming, cute, and easy to digest. Add the sharp wit, predictable slapstick, and fondness for romantic sentiment of this filmmaking team and you have a better than average comedy with fine acting from all present, especially the main pair of Zeta-Jones and Clooney. If this movie were sixty years old and starred Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, you'd have few complaints.
While it might be hard to do, try to watch this movie and not think about who made it and maybe you'll enjoy it more if you approach it with much lower expectations.
One dvd note: the version I have did not have the issue of forced preview screenings. I went straight to the main menu and watched the movie without previews. Additionally, the outtakes are odd and largely a waste of time, unless you wish to watch Paul Adelstein deliver the line, "Everybody eats berries" about twenty times and/or watch a loop of old railroad film footage.


Coen Brothers: Film # 10
2008-05-14 - I enjoyed this film as I found it entertaining and fun, but I was surprised. I was surprised because there was nothing much more to the film. Being that this film is a Coen Brother's film, I guess I was just expecting a little more umph to this film and in the end I just never got it. Sure there were fun scenes, which could only be from a Coen Brother's mind. There was also plenty of twists as well, but for me the twists were obvious and practical next steps to the storyline.

In the end, and as I really recall the film now, I did like this film a lot, but there was just something missing. What this "something" is, I just can't put my finger on.


Clever
2008-04-13 - I enjoyed every minute of it. It was a very clever movie and well done. Just when I thought I had figured it out, it would take a turn in another direction.