Barnes & Noble

Irrepressible brothers Joel and Ethan Coen are at it again, serving up plenty of laughs in an over-the-top farce that echoes Hollywood's sophisticated screwball comedies of the '30s and '40s. Super-slick divorce lawyer Miles Massey (George Clooney) has a well-deserved reputation for painlessly extricating wayward spouses from their marriages after they're caught cheating. But he's stumped by his latest client's glamorous and predatory wife, Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who seems to have entered the union secure in the knowledge that her hubby would slip up sooner or later. Miles doesn't want this dishy divorcée to get the better of him, but he doesn't count on succumbing to her considerable charms. Billy Bob Thornton has a small but flashy role as an all-too-trusting Texas millionaire who also becomes one of Marilyn's conquests, with Edward Herrmann and Julia Duffy contributing colorful supporting turns. The Coen brothers have frankly admitted that they set out to emulate classic screwball comedies, and the film's costume designer has said that Massey's suits were patterned after those worn by Cary Grant. But the uniquely twisted Coens are never content simply to walk along well-trod paths, and this film bears the unique Coen stamp in its performances and dialogue. More accessible and mainstream than some of the brothers' other movies, Intolerable Cruelty is guaranteed to provoke sidesplitting howls of laughter, especially from those conversant with such classics as The Awful Truth and His Girl Friday. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

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 Marilyn looking to get her revenge and Miles finding himself attracted to her, the two engage in a ruthless romantic pursuit to out-swindle each other. Billy Bob Thornton shows up in a small role as Texas oil tycoon Howard Doyle. Andrea LeVasseur

New York Times

Something not seen in movie theaters for a long time: an intelligent, modern screwball comedy, a minor classic on the order of competent, fast-talking curve balls about deception and greed like Mitchell Leisen's Easy Living and Billy Wilder's Major and the Minor. Elvis Mitchell

Time Magazine

Even when the movie sags and strains a bit in Act III, Clooney keeps it flying with old-fashioned movie-star allure. He's got it all: Cary Grant's looks and, inside, Bob Hope's snake-oil-salesman soul. Richard Corliss

New York Post

Hilariously overblown, Cruelty fairly pops at the seams with the beloved eccentricity of Joel and Ethan Coen, from the fiendishly ludicrous scenarios and casually tossed off visual gags to the razor-sharp repartee. Megan Lehman

Product Details

• UPC: 025192281426
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français, Español
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 1:40:00
• Sales Rank: 18,181

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Out of Sight / Intolerable Cruelty
• Romantic Comedy Pack Quadruple Feature (4pc)

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