Anyone else like "Intolerable Cruelty" ?

Personally, I loved it and I usually really dont like romantic comedies, but hey - Coen brothers and Catherine Zeta-Jones!

Anybody?

Liked it, far from loved it. It was good though.

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"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" - Howard Beale

Love it. Seen it three times thus far. I'll probably go for at least a fourth before it sadly disappears from the multiplexes (which it has already begun to do).

"Shut up, Freddie, she's allowing it!"

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

I thought it was very funny. I'm waiting for the DVD.

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Jim Lewis
To BE or Not to BE, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barium Enema
Crouching Tiger, Paint Your Wagon - Forums

I still can't believe the guy with the inhaler. I laughed and then felt guilty for laughing.

It's strange that I'm actually starting to like George Clooney films (O Brother got me started). I used to really hate him and his movies (or more specifically: I hated his character on ER).

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Rapture warning is now at ORANGE

*** out of ****.

A lot of fun. I saw it with my mother, who never goes to the movies, let alone with me, and we just spent a good hundred minutes laughing out loud together. Clooney has this style of comedy down.

And my God, he looks like Cary Grant.

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www.esotericrabbit.com

oh dear...i hated this movie so much!!! i didn't find it funny at all and was quite bored by the whole thing...supression said [s]he started liking Clooney in O Brother, that movie together with Int.Cruelty has made me dislike him...i just don't like Coen movies i guess!!

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"So you take me for what I am...a psychopathic, schizophrenic, serial-killing, femme fatale?"

While that may be so, this film wasn't very much like the other Coen films...it felt like something they were doing halfway. The least of all of their movies, in my opinion, is still good.

Kong is pretty much in line with you here. It wasn't a Coen Brothers concept, and it showed. They were hired to rewrite the script, and then the producer asked them to direct; at first they were hesitant, but then they agreed.

It certainly has lots of Coen Bros. dialogue and signatures, and it's an entertaining feature, but it's certainly one of their lesser films.

B or *** of ****

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Kong's Reviews:
Stuck On You
Bad Santa

My old man put it best: it wasn't a Coen Brothers film until Wheezy Joe showed up. Though I suppose a case could be made for drawing the line at Heinz the Baron Kraus von Espy.

I also agree with Kong: it's quite obvious that this wasn't their film from the start, but they did quite a bit with it, and the end result is funny and clever. A worthy edition to their filmography.

"Are you forgetting about Kirshner?"

personally, i think that this film was crap, the actors were so false and it was very over acted.

cazz
x

Welcome Cass.

I, however, disagree with you. I found the screenplay to be incredibly underwritten (it seemed to trying to find out what movie it wanted to be while trying to be funny). I really liked the way the actors were. Clooney played the part of the loveably cut-throat lawyer perfectly, etc. If they movie was strong anywhere, it was the acting (although the last quarter of the film is great!). I was disappointed with the film, as I said, but it still works well as a romance.

Thankyou....
fair enough, i may have those opinions coz i really hate czj but hey, why did i go and see it in the first place.... thats what i want to know..!

cazz
x

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." -Mason Verger (Gary Oldman)

Note: While I could quote any number of people for this, I'd like to give credit to my main man Gary.

I loved this movie...one of Clooney's best and least seen performances.

MAJOR BUMP from Gideon, but I very much agree. I love this film.

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

Yeah, I still like this movie a whole lot. Not really sure why it is so denegrated by many, but, whatevs, haters gonna hate.

I think even if you didn't like the movie as a whole, and as much as I like it, it's not at the tippy-top of the Coen Brothers' filmography and has some problems, I think you would have to be dead inside not to find the comedy of the courtroom scene to be damn near perfect. It could have been from a fast-talking Marx Brothers or Preston Sturges comedy (the finale of which can be seen here)...


"Is this a legal argument, 'What's good for the gander?'"

For me the biggest weakness of the film rests on one scene. The narrative really ends the second act and pivots toward the third in one, crucial scene that the entire film and Clooney's character have been building to, when while giving his keynote address to a conference of like-minded divorce attorneys for whom cynicism is their greatest ally, the character has an epiphany, does a complete 180, and declares that love, in fact, is the answer...


"Do we seek to extinguish that flame?"

Unfortunately for such an important scene, it is terribly underwritten (though verbose). Clooney gives it his all acting wise, he commits to it, but this moment should be as clever and sincere as the courtroom scene is lithe and outrageous, or, barring that, at least be fall-down funny. But...it really isn't. So the entire narrative builds to what is, for me, an unsatisfying second act denouement. To me it felt like a perfect set up of a long joke all for a flubbed punchline.

The "twist" that Marylin (Zeta-Jones) has in fact duped him need not be a surprise to work. Of course she is duping him. But Miles Massey's entire reason for living changing in a heartbeat HAS to be better shown than simply saying he fell in love and building to the slow clap. For me there needed to be something as elegant and enjoyable and witty in that transformation as there is with everything else he does up until that moment. I think the canniness and sincerity of that moment had to be the best-written piece of the whole puzzle. Since it isn't, it only feels like it happened for the sake of the plot. The third act can only take place if she gets the upper hand, therefore Miles changes his character to allow it to happen.

The third act has some very funny stuff in it, including Wheezy Joe, but while I appreciate how it all resolves itself, that one, key scene feeling empty definitely colors my enjoyment of the conclusion, and is what keeps Intolerable Cruelty from being one of Joel & Ethan's very best comedies, in my book.

Everything up until that N.O.M.A.N. address amuses and delights me as the updated Screwball farce they were going for, but then that one missing lynchpin is so crucial for me to buy in for the rest of the ride.


"What are you, nuts? Have you forgotten Kirshner?"

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I saw this movie once during its theatrical run and absolutely hated it. But since The Big Lebowski is my favorite comedy and I also enjoyed Fargo and Burn After Reading, I should probably give it another shot sometime.

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