Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 180
Fresh: 135 | Rotten: 45
Though more mainstream than other Coen films, there are still funny oddball touches, and Clooney and Zeta-Jones sizzle like old-time movie stars.
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Critic Reviews: 45
Fresh: 34 | Rotten: 11
Though more mainstream than other Coen films, there are still funny oddball touches, and Clooney and Zeta-Jones sizzle like old-time movie stars.
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Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 65,242
Movie Info
Joel and Ethan Coen take on the classic battle-of-the-sexes screwball comedy with Intolerable Cruelty. George Clooney plays Miles Massey, a high-powered Los Angeles divorce lawyer nearing a midlife crisis . While representing wealthy client Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann), Miles meets his match in Rex's gold-digging wife, Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones). He's impressed by her similarly heartless ways of using marriage to fuel an expensive lifestyle, but he still defeats her in court. With
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Cast
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George Clooney
Miles Massey -
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Marylin Rexroth -
Geoffrey Rush
Donovan Donnelly -
Cedric the Entertain...
Gus Petch -
Edward Herrmann
Rex Rexroth -
Richard Jenkins
Freddy Bender -
Billy Bob Thornton
Howard Doyle -
Paul Adelstein
Wrigley -
Julia Duffy
Sara Sorkin -
Stacey Travis
Bonnie Donovan -
Jack Kyle
Ollie Olerud -
Jonathan Hadary
Heinz the Baron Krau... -
Irwin Keyes
Wheezy Joe -
Tom Aldredge
Herb Myerson -
Royce D. Applegate
Mr. Gutman -
John Bliss
Mr. MacKinnon -
Andre Rosey Brown
Gus's Pal -
Blake Clark
Convention Secretary -
Booth Colman
Gutman Trial Judge -
-
Judith Drake
Mrs. Gutman -
Doug Fisher
Maitre D' -
Mary Gillis
Court Reporter -
Mary Pat Gleason
Nero's Waitress -
Ken Sagoes
Gus's Pal -
Isabell Monk
Judge Marva Munson -
Kiersten Warren
Claire O'Mara -
Sean Fenton
Bailiff -
George Ives
Mrs. Gutman's Lawyer -
Kristin Dattilo-Hayw...
Rex's Young Woman -
Mia Cottet
Ramona Barcelona -
Kate Luyben
Santa Fe Tart -
Wendle Josepher
Miles' Receptionist -
Tamie Sheffield
Santa Fe Tart -
Patrick Thomas O'Bri...
Bailiff -
Kitana Baker
Santa Fe Tart -
Julie Osburn
Stewardess -
Allan Trautman
Convention Lawyer -
Camille Anderson
Santa Fe Tart -
Emma Harrison
Santa Fe Tart -
Colin Linden
Father Scott -
Bridget Marquardt
Santa Fe Tart -
Gary Marshal
Las Vegas Waiter -
Nicholas Shaffer
Waiter -
Dale E. Turner
Gus's Pal
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All Critics (184) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (135) | Rotten (45) | DVD (24)
Here's an anomaly: a comedy about smart people.
Top CriticThe Coens do an efficient job of stamping their signature grotesquerie on sumptuous Beverly Hills and Las Vegas settings and ladling on gallows humor and malice, sometimes with the verve of early Robert Zemeckis.
Inventive and hilarious.
The Coen Brothers do provide enough of a diversion with bits and pieces of wacko casting, and with the deranged details of dress and makeup of their fleeting gargoyles, to make the proceedings at least moderately amusing.
This dim-witted, mean-spirited and brain-dead calamity should surprise no one.
[T]here's a lot of problems with the script, and some of the stuff with Edward Herrmann I don't think works at all, it's not funny it just kind of falls flat. But Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones, I think they deliver enough to say it's worth seeing.
Screwball comedy for older teens and adults.
A competent bit of work from which striking originality and idiosyncrasy have mostly been pruned away.
This is the Coens dabbling in the mainstream, and bending it to their will.
The Coensâ(TM) first mainstream romantic comedy is a superb hijacking of an ailing art form -- short, sharp and frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious.
As Miles, Clooney doesn't make any direct emotional appeal to the audience and yet his high style is so smashingly effective that Miles stands open to us: macher, lover, patsy.
Destined to rank among the Coens' least memorable achievements.
A great movie.
A fun romp, thanks largely to the deft work of its two leads.
[Ce film] est tout ce que l'on ne veut pas voir les Coen faire dans leur futur, mais aussi le genre de comédie romantique que l'on souhaiterait voir plus souvent.
The script is whip-smart. The Coens come closer to the zaniness of their greatest comedy, Raising Arizona, then they have in all of their movies since then.
Despite the inconsistent script and low tone, this has many funny moments. If you can forget the negative view it takes of mankind, itâ(TM)s entertaining because of the performances of Clooney, Zeta Jones, and the rest of the cast.
The Coens ... have taken a typically trite target for ridicule and splayed it out for an attack from outer space, where Coen brothers scripts tend to originate.
Has worthwhile moments, including an excellent performance by [George] Clooney, but the plotting is contrived.
...less than tolerable when it takes a turn into Blood Simple. The outright winner is Clooney, whose cheery star appeal keeps getting brighter and brighter.
Half the pleasure of Intolerable Cruelty is watching the Coens play it safe
A date-movie with brain cells.
Viewers won't feel like they've been dealt with too cruelly.
Audience Reviews for Intolerable Cruelty
Super Reviewer
The film is about a slick divorce attorney who begins to fall apart when he falls in love with a gorgeous, but scheming gold digger. Like I said, the script is weak, but I blame it on the two co-writers whose last names are not Coen. That's the troubling thing about this one: I can't really tell how much of this is the Coens, and how much isn't.
It does have its moments, but overall, it doesn't really feel like a true work from Joel and Ethan. I still kind of like this however, but it is easily their weakest film, and my least favorite. Maybe it's okay though. I know that not everyone bats 1,000, but at least we know for a fact that the Coens picked themselves way up after this minor effort.
Super Reviewer
Movies Like Intolerable Cruelty
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- Gus Petch: You want tact you call a tactician. You want an ass nailed you call Gus Petch.
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- Gus Petch: I'm gonna nail your ass!
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- Gus Petch: Yep, I nailed his ass.
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- Miles Massey: You are a carnivore?
- Marylin Rexroth: [laughing] Oh, Mr. Massey. You have *no* *idea*.
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- Miles Massey: Do we council fear or trust? Do we seek to destroy or build?
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Foreign Titles
- Ein (un)möglicher Härtefall (DE)
- Intolérable cruauté (FR)
