Ein (un)möglicher Härtefall

George Clooney stars as a self-loving whiter than white toothed lawyer who is becoming bored with his never-ending success. A challenge comes in the shapely form of Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta Jones) who wants to marry (or preferably divorce) her way to riches. With Clooney hired to represent her soon to be ex husband, he inevitably falls for the gold diggers charms.

Directed by the Coen brothers, a directorial team who have helmed oddball comedies such as 'Fargo' and 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' this is the team's first branch in to a high profile Hollywood film. Clooney, as the sharp suited lawyer, is excellent. Like Cary Grant or David Niven, Clooney is able to mock himself without compensating his screen appeal. Catherine Zeta Jones as the money hungry Marilyn is as sexy as her character demands from the scripted page. However, despite the quick fire dialogue, Intolerable Cruelty is simply not as funny as it thinks, it's cynical message of love and money taking away the romantic push it needs to place it in the league of the Tracy/Hepburn films the movie aspires to. Clooney's character also suffers from an over enthusiastic plot that later drives his character to attempt to commit a crime that totally contradicts the audiences perception of him. A battle of the sexes comedy that has sex appeal but no romance, Intolerable Cruelty is a film that reaches for the golden age of Hollywood but only touches the bronze.

Underrated gem for fans of film history. If you liked Hudsucker Proxy then you will like this. A fun farce with an old school romantic foundation.

Miles Massey is an amazing divorce lawyer who has a well-earned reputation. When he takes on the case of Rex Rexroth, who was caught on video cheating with another woman, he successfully wins the case and leaves the wronged wife, Marylin, with nothing. However he also falls for her, but she is planning his downfall in return for her losing everything she had.

With a big name pair of leads, it does look very much like the Coen's were looking for a big screen hit that would support their work to a greater extent than the loyal fan base does. As that sort of film, it seems to be doing OK, but, I wondered, at what cost to the product? The film starts well enough with an interesting case which we actually see little of, however the character of Miles is enough to hold the film together. The film contains the usual mix of larger than life characters and quirky humour, but the central romancing doesn't always hold true and there are stretches where the humour dips away to find that there is very little left without it.

Having said that, this doesn't occur often enough to be a problem and the film is still pretty good fun. The characters are it's making and there are enough of those to make it work. Clooney excels in the lead with a strange sort of humour - the same sort of character he played in "O Brother" if you ask me, but he does seem to have a touch for the comic stuff. Jones is less assured and her character has less of the humour I expect from the Coens and is more of a straight role. The support cast is all good as they provide small snippets of humour, whether it be Wheezy Joe or the rude waitress.

Overall it is not the cleverest film the Coen's have done, nor the funniest or most satisfying but, as a multiplex pleasing romance with quirky humour, it does work and should be enjoyed as that.

I am amazed at the lack of true movie knowledge that is displayed in these boards sometimes. If I had to guess at the age of the writers of bad reviews this particular movie has garnered in the reviews preceding mine, I would say at best 18. Not a single one of these unknowing boobs remembers Cary Grant, nor the fast-talking zany comedies like Bringing up Baby, and again nor the romance comedies of Hepburn & Tracy.

The Coen Brothers like to do re-hashes, ie. Miller's Crossing/Blood Simple/Big Lebowski are their different takes on film noir. And now they made an amusing film of a different era again. Sexiness/chemistry does not mean bare flesh, nor does action or cursing make a modern classic. The one fault of the Coen's in making this movie was a lack of close-ups - a dead giveaway for what they were trying to achieve.

At best, this is a funny romantic black comedy, with witty dialogue. At worst, it is absurdist black comedy.

A surprisingly smart comedy from Joel and Ethan Cohen, INTOLERABLE CRUELTY is a deft and entertaining comedy about the relationship that develops between a fast talking attorney (George Clooney) and a man-eating gold digger (Catherine Zeta-Jones)who pretty much eats husbands for lunch. This delightful throwback to the Tracy-Hepburn, Grant-Russell comedies of the 30's and 40's moves at a nice pace and is anchored by a razor sharp performance by Clooney, who has rarely been more appealing on screen. Clooney does everything right here and his performance alone makes this film worth seeing, but Zeta-Jones never allows herself to be overshadowed by him in one of her more venomous characterizations. Worthwhile bits are also contributed by Geoffrey Rush, Billy Bob Thornton, Richard Jenkins, and Edward Herrmann. One of the most underrated comedies ever made which is a definite must-see for Clooney fans.