With stars like George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Bob Thornton, and Geoffrey Rush, a movie would have to be pretty damn bad not to be entertaining. Intolerable Cruelty is entertaining, but while it features some truly funny moments and a knockout comedic performance from George Clooney, the romance is lukewarm and at times Catherine Zeta-Jones looks almost bored. It quite nicely proves the point that a great cast cannot cover up all of a movie's weaknesses.
Clooney plays Miles Massey, a high-powered and very successful divorce attorney who's run out of challenges and is growing bored with his job. A lawyer of the Billy Flynn variety, Miles is all about appearances and money. His constant obsession with keeping his teeth pearly white is a running joke. Clooney shines in the role and most of the movie's laughs come from his performance. The only downside to his character is the way he suddenly becomes so trustingly naïve halfway through the movie, but which is a fault of the script and not Clooney's performance.
A challenge finally comes Miles' way when Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann) comes to him for representation. Rex's wife (Zeta-Jones) is seeking a divorce because of Rex's philandering, which she has on videotape. The challenge is that Rex, due to business reasons, wants his wife to get absolutely nothing in the settlement. Miles happily accepts the case.
Of course, when Miles sees Marilyn Rexroth, he falls completely under her spell. Now since the gorgeous Catherine Zeta-Jones is playing her, it is easy to see why he would find her attractive. It's less easy to see why he would fall in love with her, and almost impossible to see why he would ever trust her. Like too many romantic comedies, there really isn't a reason given why the two leads fall in love with each other, apart from sexual chemistry, which these two have in spades.
The pacing is quick and as long as the jokes keep coming, the movie sails along nicely. However, the one or two moments when this movie dips into sentimentality, like Miles' keynote speech at the N.O.M.A.N. Conference (National Organization of Matrimonial Attorneys, Nationwide, whose motto is 'Let NOMAN put asunder...'), tend to drag the movie down.
Perhaps the blame for this movie not quite reaching the perfection its premise and cast deserve, falls on the Coen brothers, who directed, produced, and wrote the movie. More known for offbeat films like Fargo, Raising Arizona, and The Hudsucker Proxy, this movie bears little of their off-kilter sensibilities. Probably the only scenes that carry their signature are those when Miles meets with his law firm's senior partner, a man so ancient that only the 20 to 30 machines feeding and removing various fluids from his body, can keep him alive. It's the movie's only surreal moment.
As an admitted attempt to imitate the screwball romantic comedies of the 1930s, Intolerable Cruelty works with some success as a comedy. As a romance, however, it falls far short of its goal.
