Intolerable Cruelty

Like a bride who marries a man with bad habits hoping to change him, Intolerable Cruelty finds the eccentric writing-directing Coen brothers married to someone else's original script and the union hasn't turned out as happy as they'd hoped. Aspiring to the snappy banter and chemistry of a Howard Hawks comedy, the unconventional filmmakers behind Raising Arizona, Fargo, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? cast George Clooney as L.A.'s slickest divorce lawyer and Catherine Zeta-Jones as the alluring serial gold-digger who ironically sets his heart aquiver. The brothers rewrote the screenplay with their own distinctive quirks, but between the picture's high-gloss big-studio sheen and its pedestrian high-camp conventions, it seems to have lost both the underlying savvy that gives the Coens' comedies their soul and the evenly matched gender rivalries that gave Hawks' romances their heart. The movie has moments of inspired mirth--"I could have you disbarred for that," coos Zeta-Jones after Clooney makes a pass at her. "It was worth it," he replies with a Cheshire grin. But those moments are the exception rather than the rule. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: Available in widescreen or full screen versions, DVD extras include a 12-minute “making of” featurette, the five-minute costume design featurette “The Wardrobe,” four “Filmmaker Approved and Assembled Outtakes” (7 min.), cast and filmmaker bios and film highlights, and DVD-ROM features. Bottom line: a lightweight extras package for a very lightweight effort from the Coens.] (R. Blackwelder)