By Tanya Batson-Savage, Staff ReporterINTOLERABLE CRUELTY, starring George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones, is far more than tolerable. It's a riot, a silly, hilarious romp at love's expense.
Intolerable Cruelty pokes fun at romantic comedies, love and how crazy people get when their idea of love bites them on the behind. Of course, what better creatures to use to do this than a career wife and a divorce lawyer? In their direction of this flick Joel and Ethan Coen have again tapped into the core of the funny bone. The movie is funny from the first frame.
By setting the film in Beverly Hills, the land of make believe where the people are more plastic than their credit cards, the movie allows itself to take great liberties with the characters. The characters are silly and the court scenes bear some resemblance to a Judge Judy episode on a hallucinogenic overdose.
Intolerable Cruelty is like a cream puff. It's fun to eat and that's it. No nutritional value is present, just something light and tasty. (Nutrition is highly overrated anyway). Despite how light and silly the story gets, the movie is very smartly written, with some very memorable lines.
During the first half, it uses a bit of slapstick but depends heavily on very witty lines and snappy deliveries. Toward the end, however, the script is flipped as the slapstick begins to dominate and the witty lines play second fiddle. Regardless of the change in speed, the fun continues at full throttle.
The sharp writing is honed by a great cast. The chemistry between Zeta-Jones and Clooney just sizzles and helps to make the romantic side of the story quite believable, even in the height of the mockery.
Clooney gives a delightful performance as 'Miles Massey', a divorce lawyer extraordinaire. He is so slick peanut butter would slide off him without leaving tracks. He pimps the law for every farthing he can get from it, making sure to give it that extra squeeze just in case she was holding anything back. Like the sharks from which his ancestors were clearly spawned, he makes sure to keep his teeth pearly white.
Zeta-Jones handles the her role as 'Marylin Rexroth' to the sashaying hilt. Like Clooney, she too has a very white smile and she is no less dangerous. She is cool, collected and oh so fatal. Her motto is clearly 'Why work when you can marry?' and she marries very well. Between the two they give a very good portrayal of the art of the acting craft.
ROMANTIC COMEDY
Intolerable Cruelty really isn't a romantic comedy; it is just pretending to be one so it can get away with making jokes about romantic comedies. The names of the characters are direct spoofs of those that can be found in Gothic novels, except here no one dies from love (probably because the lawyers have not found a way to profit from it). Such gems as Heinz the Baron Krauss von Espy, Freddy Bender, and Ollie Olerud are delightfully taken from romantic pulp fiction. The characters created to suit these names are even funnier.
Clooney and Zeta-Jones are just the tip of a rather stellar line-up. The movie benefits from great performances by Cedric The Entertainer, Edward Herman (Gilmore Girls), Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Billy Bob Thorton.
Intolerable Cruelty asks the essential question of today's rich and famous what's love without a pre-nuptial agreement? The movie is sexy, smart and funny.
It is a riotous romp hitchhiking on Cupid's arrow.
