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Volume CXXXIII, Number 6 |
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George and Catherine create sparks
JULIA GUERRERO REED
STAFF WRITER
Intolerable Cruelty is the latest film by the Coen Brothers, known for such oddball comedies as The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, Fargo, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? In this latest film, they take a risk by venturing into the territory of romantic comedy and blending it with their characteristic dark humor and wit. It is, as the movie posters say, "a romantic comedy with bite."
The film is a battle of the sexes, featuring George Clooney as a very successful and charming divorce attorney and Catherine Zeta-Jones as a very beautiful and cunning serial wife, who marries very rich men for their money and promptly divorces them. Both characters have achieved everything they thought they wanted in life-fame, fortune, and independence-but still feel that something is missing. They meet when Clooney's character acts as the divorce attorney for the husband Zeta-Jones's character is about to divorce. The divorce is successful, and Clooney promptly falls in love with Zeta-Jones.
Through a complicated scheme involving Billy Bob Thornton as a soap star posing as a rich oil well owner, the signing and destroying of several prenuptial agreements, and a lie about a friend dying of an ulcer alone in her bed, Zeta-Jones manages to reel in George Clooney and make him marry her at the spur of the moment in a Las Vegas wedding chapel. Clooney is completely fooled, however, and for the first time in his life leaves himself completely vulnerable, exposed, and "hung out to dry." The next day he sees her packing to go back to L.A. and discovers it was all an incredibly elaborate scheme.
What follows is another elaborate series of backstabbing attempts, including an asthmatic assassin who ironically shoots himself and sprays his inhaler into Clooney's face when he gets an asthma attack.
Throughout the film the pair has an undeniable chemistry, which will end in the time-honored fashion of the romantic comedy.
As in all Coen Brothers movies, this film is a satire of something in our society. In this case, it is commenting on the sad state of matrimony in our country and how people do not take their vows seriously. It also demonstrates that money does not buy happiness. This movie is enjoyable, but do not expect it to be a typical romantic comedy or a typical Coen Brothers film.
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