For love or money? It's the eternal question film-makers try to answer and inevitably they choose love in the end. "Intolerable Cruelty" wants to be that kind of film, the kind of film that leaves audience members sighing with the hope of true love as visions of "happily ever after" dance in their heads. Sadly, "Intolerable Cruelty" leaves audience members sighing with confusion as to whether love is truly better than money.
Take Miles Massey, played rather brilliantly by George Clooney, a divorce lawyer with perfectly white teeth and an obviously large bank account. Massey is good at what he does: Making one party of a divorce obscenely wealthy at the other party's expense, whether either deserves it or not. Massey falls head over expensive shoes in love with opposing client Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones), but there is no real sense of love, rather a love of her superficiality.
Rexroth, who "eats men like [Massey] for breakfast," appears to fluctuate between respecting Massey's wealth and power and lusting after it. Zeta-Jones' portrayal of a gold-digger unfortunately seems to take little effort on her part. Indeed, at times, it almost seems that she is playing herself.
The plot, which moves quickly and turns around on itself every few scenes, basically details Massey's quest for Rexroth's affection and the quest of both for the meaning of love. Despite a few mildly clever twists, "Intolerable Cruelty" is a very simple story about two people who are either in love with each other, or in love with each other's money.
This film is cleverly written and passionately acted, but it's cute at best. The men responsible for the film, Joel and Ethan Coen, have masterminded numerous films that have been hailed as truly innovative and original, including "O' Brother Where Art Thou," "Raising Arizona" and "Fargo." "Intolerable Cruelty" is not original, nor is it innovative. It is an insipid Hollywood romantic comedy that "real" film-makers tend to avoid. The Coen brothers, however, have landed right in that genre, and even their twisting narrative and witty one-liners fail to escape that.
Perhaps high expectations for the Coen Brothers is what causes this film to fall so flat. There is really no question that "Intolerable Cruelty" is the worst film they have ever made. It is also by far the most Hollywood-ized.
Ignoring preconceived expectations held for the directors, this movie isn't all that bad. It is entertaining and has many humorous moments, mostly caused by the subtle twitch of Clooney's eyebrows.
The problem with this film does not lie in its entertainment value or in the quality of the filming, but rather the confusion over the message - whether love is actually better than money. But perhaps that is the point of the film - that one cannot simply attempt to choose one over the other. Instead, a middle ground must be reached, one where love and money can peacefully coexist. It is undeniable that such a compromise would have made this particular film much less confusing.
There is also the possibility that the Coen brothers intended this film as a satire on the wealthy elite. Moments in the film certainly suggest this, but by the end of the film one realizes that the message is unclear.
"Intolerable Cruelty" is funny, but as Coen brothers' films go, a huge disappointment.
