Intolerable Cruelty he-said-she-said movie review screener!

by Chris and Kris   ⋅   October 9, 2003   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

HE SAID: Ah, this review has been in the cooker for 3 days now. It’s always harder to review a film you’re sort of indifferent to. I’ll tell you straight out that Intolerable Cruelty is a funny film, though not as frenetic and quirky as O Brother Where Art Thou, Raising Arizona, or Barton Fink. I’d say it ranks somewhere around The Hudsucker Proxy.

Anyways the film is based on Egyptian, Athenian, and Roman prenuptual rights and divorce law, which I haven’t had time to research. Miles Massey, creator of the impenetrable Massey Pre-Nuptual, is a legendary divorce lawyer who wins every case. He can steer the judge and jury toward agreeing with his side of the case, even if facts are reversed, altered, and completely obliterated. Along comes Rex Rexroth, a minimall millionare married to Marylin Rexroth (Catherine Zeta Jones). He’s been caught cheating and wants a divorce. He wants the split to be a 100-0 split. He gets everything and she gets nothing. In court, with the aid of the hilarious Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy, it is proven Marilyn is a career divorcee, a woman who marries rich only to divorce and gain financial clout. Marilyn is defeated and goes off to find her next victim. Once Miles finds out about her next husband (Billy Bob Thornton) he becomes obsessed. What happens is a metaphorical game of chess. Miles and Marilyn the players, financial gain and love as the possible goal. Each screws over the other repeatedly, but in the end…it’s all nice. You’ll see.

As I’ve said the film is based on Egyptian/Greek/Roman pre-nuptual agreements, and is reflected in the settings for the story. Miles lunches at Nero’s (restaurant), wines and dines Marilyn at Caesar’s Palace, and all sets seem to feature Roman statues. I honestly have to research this more.

The film doesn’t exactly paint women in a good light, but it doesn’t paint men as much better either. The men are portrayed as noble young sirs who (even if they were cheating), fall victim to scheming, money grubbing wives. On the other hand all the men are ruled by their penises, allowing bitches like Marilyn and her clan to seduce, marry, and divorce.

I’m a big fan of Clooney (He’s the man, man!), but not so much of Zeta Jones (Miss “I’ll sue you if I look fat!”) Jones is okay, and there are moments when Clooney really shines, but overall, due to the fact the Coen Brothers weren’t the scriptwriters, this is an atypical, more mainstream Coen Bros film. The humour is bitingly funny, and may go over much of the audience’s heads, but it is one of the few Coen Brothers pictures I wouldn’t watch again.

As a side note, horror fans may find there are there are some treats. Cameos feature Bruce Campbell, Irwin Keyes (House of 1000 Corpses) and Ken Sagoes (Nightmare on Elm Street 3).

SHE SAID:
This review was slightly more difficult for me as well, but it was mostly becos I respect George Clooney (talented and damn handsome) and the Coens. I wouldn’t exactly put any of their movies on my ‘faves list’, but for amazingly witty dialogue, intelligent arguments and sardonic ‘tour de forces of nature’, I adore them.

I’m poo-pooing the sweeping score (over-the-top at times), but pumped about a few brilliant shots. In a suspenseful scene, spiky shadows of dracaena marginata (aka: ‘money tree’ in Hawai’i, haha) eerily mimicked haunted house effects. In a niiice dissolve, Massey’s pearly whites glow through the windshield, only slightly obscured by reflections of passing foliage.

Now lemme talk about reflections. We see Miles admiring his set of 32 repeatedly, a combination of vanity and a façade designed for client confidence. Investigation of the appearance of teeth in dreams often points to a revelation and major change in one’s life. Fear, also stands as a major catalyst; we see Miles’ nightmare. He had projected his image as an elderly miser, spitting image of his Firm’s big boss, McKinnon (and you want horror, try having a 500 ton truck of wrinkles parked in front of you, reminding you of your feeble mortality). There are also glittering grommets on Zeta-Jones’ odd blue outfit (pictured above) and a little proclivity for snobby, mirrored sunglasses. There were also hints of reflection in the characters’ clever names: alliteration abound, rhyme time (i.e.: Doyle Oil), and the obvious ‘Rex Rexroth’ and his Rolls Royce insignia. (Also great for comedic effect.)

As I mentioned, the dialogue is witty, with a few guffaw draw-ers which I hope won’t go over people’s heads (i.e.: Billie Bob’s “Are you gonna leave a deposit?”, which I thought doubled as a snide innuendo, or maybe I’m just dirty like that), but at times I felt like it was naive sock-you-in-the-head romance. Sure, we were meant to believe in the bonds of love, but it was difficult to drive home with these two diaphanous characters. Miles just wanted what he couldn’t have (bonus: a good lay), and Marilyn just wanted money, money, mah-nay!! It’s like if Kevin Spacey’s character from Se7en was there, their heads would have been lopped off in the first sequence, man.

But, oh, back to the important parts: Love, honesty, integrity, devotion and Geoffrey Rush (flawless). We delve into the reactions of unrequited love, sado-masochistic games and visions of ‘success’. We see that, *sigh*, even the wealthiest of the wealthiest are unfulfilled. Love completes us, love makes us weak, and love makes us act like idiots. Love is great and I highly recommend it! This movie, however, was only okay.

Intolerable Cruelty opens in theatres October 10th.

About the Authors:

Chris Nelson and Kris Kobayashi-Nelson are the happily married and proud co-founders of dreamlogic.net. The adventurous soulmates occasionally take a break from ghost hunting, prank pulling, programming, jazz club lounging and kitty wrangling to view some wicked cool flicks and share ‘em with you. Enjoy!