Coen Bros: Not Quite Intolerable
Intolerable Cruelty
Director: Joel Coen
Released: October 10, 2003
** 2/5
Why beat around the bush? Intolerable Cruelty is stupid.
Silly, maybe that’s a better word–more PC. But the idea’s the same. It’s a comedy that’s only rarely funny and a romance that’s only sometimes charming. About the “game” of marriage and divorce, it deals in caricatures and plot-turns to make its point, when maybe all it really needs to be is quirky and lovable. Look at something like Sleepless in Seattle.
I’ve talked before about a “consciousness” I notice in the Coen’s work, a kind of dishonesty between what it is they’re doing and what they’re showing us that often keeps me from connecting. But I don’t think I ever really nailed my meaning. But Ebert did. I think he got it just right when he wrote:
“Plots like this have fueled lovely screwball comedies, and Intolerable Cruelty is in the genre, but somehow not of it. The Coens sometimes have a way of standing to one side of their work: It’s the puppet and they’re the ventriloquists. The puppet is sincere, but the puppetmaster is wagging his eyebrows at the audience and asking, can you believe this stuff? Joel and Ethan are bounteously gifted filmmakers, but sometimes you just want them to lay off the irony and climb down here with the groundlings. Their Fargo was a movie that loved its characters, and it’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.“
I couldn’t agree more. And I couldn’t say it any better. Intolerable Cruelty fails because it’s never completely genuine, always a wacky kind of tongue in cheek, relying on exaggeration for laughs because it doesn’t trust its characters enough to get them without it. It isn’t because of poor acting or crappy writing, but because it mocks its players, turning its story into a kind of emotionless circus. The Coens are better, every time, when they’re on the level, friends with their characters, inside of their story–Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Big Lebowski. Not when they’re on top of it, separated and pulling the strings.
Bottom line: If it’s a romantic comedy you’re looking for, go see (500) Days of Summer. If it’s a Coen movie, you’re better off with…really, any other one.
Next Coen: The Ladykillers
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