More Than Tolerable
The Coen brothers may not be at their best with Intolerable Cruelty, but they’re still mighty funny
by Noel Murray
Intolerable Cruelty
]Dir.: Joel & Ethan Coen
PG-13, 100 min.
Now showing at area theaters
There are gags that audiences have seen so many times that all comedians have to do is set up the bit, and people will laugh. Some comedy writers believe it’s even funnier if the premise is stunted—say, a fresh pane of glass lands in the middle of a chase scene and doesn’t get broken. Others—classicists—feel that gags have to be paid off, or else future generations will lose the thread that ties the Keystone Cops to Adam Sandler. To a classicist, the hoariest routines are really performance showcases. Just as great singers can be measured by how well they belt out the standards, so is a great comic actor only as good as his ability to do a spit-take.
If filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen gave any thought to the matter at all, they’d probably define themselves as classicists. Their pictures are filled with snappy patter, cunning schemes and crazy capers, much of which is rooted in Sturges screwball and B-comedy—hay and corn. Intolerable Cruelty is the Coens’ straightest, squarest laugher yet and their first work-for-hire gig, adapted from a script by Robert Ramsey and Matt Stone. Admittedly, it’s the first Coens movie that the brothers don’t seem fully invested in.
But if we’re talking percentages, Intolerable Cruelty is more than 60 percent funny, which places it in the general proximity of The Hudsucker Proxy and The Big Lebowski; though it’s not as hilarious as Raising Arizona, it’s funnier than most of what passes for movie comedy these days. And if we really want to talk percentages, Intolerable Cruelty is funny as often as The Bank Dick or A Night at the Opera or a ton of other classic screen comedies that are remembered fondly for their best moments and forgiven their slack ones.
George Clooney stars as divorce lawyer Miles Massey, a bright-toothed fast-talker whose success in the courtroom can’t make up for the emptiness in his life. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Marylin Rexroth, cuckolded wife of millionaire Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann) and bitter loser in a divorce case argued by Massey. While she tries to figure out the best way to get even with him, he has become smitten and is trying to figure out the best way to get her to fall in love.
This plot is thin, missing the intricate construction of a typical Coens script; Intolerable Cruelty is ostensibly about cutting through romantic red tape in the name of satisfying what the heart really wants, but the theme is more stated than felt. There’s also more than a little clumsiness sprinkled throughout, starting with a graceless opening scene with Geoffrey Rush as a ponytailed TV producer, and continuing through some of the scenes with Cedric the Entertainer as hired snoop Gus Petch, who’s funny when he’s concluding every statement with “I’m Gus Petch!” and not so funny when he keeps using the phrase “I’m gonna nail his ass!” (At times, it’s like the Coens are parodying the slack, catchphrase-driven comedy of today.)
But the Coens retain enough comic timing to make a mere shot of a tennis ball machine amusing, especially with Clooney indifferently batting back the machine’s output. They also get juice from Herrmann’s cartoonish gestures and Clooney’s spastic double-takes, and from a handful of surefire gags, like a man climbing over a fence to escape attack dogs only to have the gate swing open while he’s still on it.
Mostly, the Coens lean on their leads. Zeta-Jones looks glamorous and substantial (if ultimately elusive), and Clooney is as handsome and suave as he’s ever been, whether spouting legal jargon or realizing that scoring points off romantic strife isn’t warming his bed at night. He turns every piece of amped-up dialogue and slapstick choreography into an exquisite song and dance.
Some are bound to underrate Intolerable Cruelty because it isn’t as tight or incisive as the Coen Brothers at their best. I sympathize with that point of view. I’m also certain that in years to come, Clooney’s performance and the Coens gag-sense are going to make the movie look better and better. So chuck the disappointment, lay aside the nit-picking and succumb.
Comments (0)