Intolerable Cruelty
Synopsis: A divorce attorney for the rich and famous falls in love with the ex-wife of his latest client, a ruthless woman that considers marriages and divorces as investment opportunities.
Technical Details
|
Review
Miles Massey is a high profile divorce attorney. The rich and the famous come to him when they face a tough divorce, as he is known to get the best financial arrangements for his clients, many times through techniques that can’t be considered clean. In one of these divorce trials he meets Marylin Rexroth, the beautiful and sophisticated wife of his client. Miles proves Marylin married her husband with the purpose of later divorcing him and get some of his money, so she ends up with nothing. In the following months Miles and Marylin meet again, this time she is about to marry a new rich guy and the couple want a pre-nuptial agreement. Miles is fascinated by Marylin and will inevitably fall in love with her. But can she be trusted? After all, Miles is also pretty wealthy.
George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones play their parts well, and they are supported by a very good cast. In particular, Cedric the Entertainer plays an extremely funny detective whose main line of work consists in catching husbands or wives in infidelity acts, or “nailing their asses” as he would put it. Billy Bob Thornton also appears in a ’short and sweet’ role as one of Marylin’s victims. Unfortunately the plot isn’t as solid as it could be, this game of trust and distrust that Miles and Marylin play extends for too long and its conclusion is somewhat unrealistic.
Intolerable Cruelty is far from the top of my list of Coen brothers movies, but that is not to say that it is a bad movie, it is actually a decent comedy, although not quite at the level we are accustomed to expect from the Coen duo.
©2008 by Miguel Grinberg
Excellent
Good
Bad
Stinker
RSS
I remember, when I first watched this, I didn’t even know who the Coen brothers were. Shame on me.