Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8315 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-02-23
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.co.uk 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) skilfully outmanoeuvres gold-digger Marylin Rexroth (Zeta-Jones) 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, 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

Synopsis
George Clooney establishes himself as a true Hollywood movie star and heir to the Cary Grant throne in this hysterical dark romantic comedy from the Coen brothers. Clooney plays Miles Massey, an unhappy and lonely divorce lawyer who specialises in protecting the wealth of men who have been caught cheating by their wives. But when Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones) walks into his office, he thinks he might be in love, leading to a thrilling cat-and-mouse battle of the sexes in which audiences never know who's scamming whom and whether true love is ever attainable--especially when there is a lot of money at stake.
Much has been made of the Coens' venture into mainstream movies, but Intolerable Cruelty fits in well in their pantheon of unusual and highly entertaining films, including The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski, and Blood Simple. Clooney and Zeta-Jones light up the screen, and they get ample support from Billy Bob Thornton as a rich country bumpkin oil magnate, Julia Duffy as a poor little rich girl, Richard Jenkins as a low-rent lawyer, Edward Herrmann as a train-loving naughty boy, Geoffrey Rush as an eccentric television producer, Cedric the Entertainer as an outrageous private investigator, and the inimitable Irwin Keyes as hit man Wheezy Joe. Fast-paced dialogue, gorgeous settings, and Clooney's facial gestures combine for a whirlwind film that is both fun and funny. The soundtrack contains many Simon & Garfunkel songs, in two cases riotously performed by a folksinging priest and a Las Vegas chapel bagpiper.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant; anarchic but heartwarming!
The Coen brothers manage once again to produce an inspired comedy with their surreal and offbeat sensibilities intact. George Clooney is a divorce lawyer who cleans out Catherine Zeta-Jones... she seeks revenge in her own inimitable style, while the audience asks, who is falling for who..?
In any one elses hands this could have been the formula for another tired romantic comedy, but the Coens inhabit this premise with wonderful offbeat characters, one of a kind performances and moments which are laugh out funny just because they are surreal.
George Clooney is more of a star every day, and here his performance has some echoes from his previous Coen brothers film, 'O Brother, where art thou'.. except this time it is his teeth and not his Dapper-Dan hair which have taken over as his fixation.
Zeta Jones on the other hand manages to avoid another lacklustre performance and actually sparkles in what turns out to be perfect casting.
One of the genius touches of the movie and the script, is that it takes in several different types of humour.. situation comedy, slapstick comedy (the scene when Clooney is breaking into his own home and confronting a 'burglar' is hilarious) and wordplay comedy which the Zucker brothers would have bene proud of. And nobody can match them, and Clooney in particular, for their sense of comedy timing.
This deserves to be their most succesful film to date!

Friends don't let friends miss Coen Brothers' Movies
Intolerable Cruelty has to be the funniest film I've seen all year! Fans of the Coen Brothers will instantly love this fast paced, witty and surreal piece of cinematic genius, brilliantly directed, fantastically scripted and incredibly intelligent. While the idea of Clooney and Zeta-Jones fogging up the screen in a romantic comedy turned me off so much that I missed this in the cinema, now I've seen it I can't believe I had so little faith in Joel and Ethan. The Coen's didn't write the story, so this is sadly no Big Lebowski or Fargo, and some of the characters are a tad unsubtle (Cedric the Entertainer's private dick, the half-dead head lawyer and Clooney's sidekick come to mind) but they did have a hand in the screenplay, and therefore the dialogue sparkles with the typical Coen shine. I think the best scene for this is during Zeta-Jones' first divorce, as Clooney, his sidekick and this Client, in strained whispers, discuss their experience with the Judge ("Have you sat before this Judge before?","No, the Judge sits first..."). The cockpit scenes in Airport spring to mind...
The plot wriggles and squirms, involves and discards without ever falling into the trap of becoming too slow, sentimental or boring and various recurring jokes and camera shots from other Coen brothers movies will keep the viewer entertained even after the 6th or 7th run through. The only thing that becomes stale is Zeta-Jones' lack of acting ability, but she's so drop-dead gorgeous that it doesn't really matter.
Definitely one to buy, treasure and make sure your friends see!

INTOLERABLE IS THE OPERATIVE WORD...
I confess to being a big fan of the Coen brothers, which is why I was surprised at my response to this film. With a cast to die for, it has all the makings of a terrific film. Unfortunately, that is about as far as it gets, as the cast cannot undo what has been done by a screenplay that is seriously flawed, due to its inability to decide what type of film it should be. Unfortunately, it looks as if the director could not make up his mind either, producing a film that is neither fish nor fowl.

At first, I thought that it would be a screwball type of comedy, with George Clooney in the role that would have gone to Cary Grant in the golden age of filmmaking. Then, it seems to take another direction altogether, as if it were supposed to be a romantic comedy with a dark side or simply satire gone awry. Who knows? The Coen brothers surely don't. The film lacks a total surety of identity that kills it, despite the stellar cast. It is a flop, pure and simple.

The plot line is a fairly basic one. It is about a slick, greedy and grasping, unscrupulous matrimonial attorney (George Clooney), the kind that gives all lawyers a bad name, and a greedy and grasping gold digging beauty (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who gives all beautiful women a bad name. Their paths cross, and the chase is on. Unfortunately, the viewer does not give a rat's behind about either one of them. There is nothing that would ingratiate them to the viewer, due to the two dimensional, leaden screenplay to nowhere in which laughs are few and far between.

If you are a die hard Coen brothers fan, as I am, do yourself a favor and, rather than buy this film, rent it first. You will thank me for this advice, once you have seen this film.