INTOLERABLE CRUELTY (Joel [and Ethan] Coen, 2003) 80

Reviewed: September 10th, 2003

[Spoiler-free.]

This is the Coens' most overtly romantic film, longing for a true love that might never come and marked by a fascinating tug-of-war between Brian Grazer's title card and the singular sensibility of two of our greatest filmmakers. Those fearing the Coens have 'gone Hollywood' and churned out conventional romantic comedy ought not worry: both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter name check The Awful Truth in their reviews, but Intolerable Cruelty is actually pitched closer to Danny DeVito's fatalistic account of marital discord, The War of the Roses. The Coens' trademark cynicism pervades most frames, but there's an internal questioning of the cynicism, and just as The Man Who Wasn't There can be seen as an answer to Coen detractors who have always labeled the duo hollow and unfeeling, Intolerable Cruelty can be taken as Joel and Ethan's follow-up statement. Clooney's (ostensibly cold, actually deeply emotional) character is plagued by the emptiness of early success, the accomplishment of so much by midlife that the question wherefore next can become crushing. Perhaps this is exactly where the Coens found themselves post-The Man Who Wasn't There. After nine films, their Oscar-winning career was one of the most remarkable in the modern canon; after tackling nearly every genre, their critical reputation as esteemed as almost anyone else making movies. Yet the one notable achievement which still eluded the brothers was widespread popular success; maybe they felt attempting to craft a Big Hit while maintaining their unique integrity was the most daunting new challenge they could imagine. Irrespective of motive, at times Grazer's influence seems to be genuinely beneficial: Intolerable Cruelty's pessimism is movingly (and crucially) balanced by an idealism, its stance on love genuinely conflicted, torn between no-compromise purity and marriage as a heartless battlefield. This is a Coen film (cartoonish, not broad), both in the hilariously offbeat supporting players (is an excellent Cedric the Entertainer -- playing the role earmarked for Jon Polito -- another Grazer concession, or the Coens finally deciding to broaden their racial horizons?), the gloriously frenzied writing (who else can mine such huge laughs outta nothing more than character names?) and the impeccable visualizing (following up his ostentatious work on The Man Who Wasn't There, it'd be an easy mistake to underrate Roger Deakins's photography here; but in its lush sheens -- oozing bold colors and high life glamour -- it's nearly as beautiful as anything he's ever shot). Nitpicks aside (parts of the third act might not work as effectively as they should, minor concerns re: Zeta-Jones's character, a few of the little mainstreamy gags fall flat), Intolerable Cruelty is a deliberate progression of an ever-widening career, neither disappointing nor formulaic, a sort of satisfyingly bittersweet pang.

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