The two main characters in "Intolerable Cruelty" are not nice folks that you really hope will fall in love because you think they deserve happiness. Miles Massey (George Clooney) is a cynical divorce lawyer, sick of his job not because of its moral implications but because it is so easy to manipulate the system. He is looking for a challenge, and he finds it in Marilyn Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a woman who makes no effort to disguise from him that she sees marriage as an economic rather than romantic opportunity. She is a member of a gang of Los Angeles women who sustain their extravagant lifestyle of large mansions and private Pilates instructors by marrying incredibly rich men, then take their money in the ensuing divorce proceedings. Miles immediately falls in love-not because Marilyn is incredibly gorgeous, but because she is the only thing in his life that he cannot easily win through argument.
Screwball comedies are great because they turn love into a game where it is possible for both parties to win the war no matter how many battles they lose. In other romantic films, circumstances such as late trains inhibit the lovers from finding one another, but in the screwball tradition, it is the lovers' own needs to outsmart each other that prevent their romance. No matter what the decade, it is always fun to watch smart, attractive people find their match and try to outdo them in smart, attractive ways. It leads to great dialogue, great lines and the fun of the chase. The dialogue of the film drips with quick wit and cynicism, and in an age of dumb comedies and visual jokes, it is exhilarating to need to pay attention just to keep up with what is said. Rather than saying exactly what they mean, Rex and Marilyn use language to confuse and muddle the issues of romance and play games with each others' minds.
This is a film filled with divorce squabbles, fake marriages and the ripping up of prenuptuals galore. What is new and intriguing is not that these two characters create their own difficulties, but that they do in it in such outrageously devious ways. They don't just talk around each other; they actually fight a romantic war of epic proportions. Miles is actually the less devious of the two parties. He does not go to the same lengths as Marilyn until she backs him into a corner.
Sometimes the strength of the film, which lies in its exuberant deceit, is its weakness. I mean, who really cares if two cynical, outrageous characters find love with each other? The film rests on its ability to make the action of the plot much more important than the outcome, and it would not be able to do that unless it rested on such able shoulders. George Clooney gives a tour de force performance that rides mainly on his energy and charm; even when he hires someone to kill Marylin, he's so funny, so attractive and so much fun to watch, that you just don't care.
Zeta-Jones smartly chose to parody her own reputation as a golddigger (inspired by her real-life marriage to Michael Douglas) and matches him blow for blow with an enticing smirk that she wields like a weapon. Besides the two main characters, there is Cedric the Entertainer's detective (in a great, albeit one-note performance), a wheezing hitman who is disposed of in the most clever way imaginable and the grotesque head of the law firm, a man so dedicated to his job that he still bills the most hours in the firm despite his severe health problems. This mixture of the gross and strange in a movie about romance is much more fun than a film like "She's All That."
The only problem with the film is that it feels too much like an experiment for the Coen brothers, one they made out of interest rather than love. My favorite Coen brother's film is "Fargo,s" because while it is mocking, cynical and violent, you can always feel how much Joel and Ethan really love those Minnesotans, especially Frances McDormand's lumbering pregnant detective. The Coen brothers' films are always intriguing and always exciting, but often cannot make up for their lack of affection.
"Intolerable Cruelty" tries at moments to lecture the audience on love. The scene in Las Vegas where Clooney lectures a group of divorce lawyers sticks out the most, but these moments are unnecessary and break the tone of the film. I wish they had just coasted on the ebullience of the concept, rather than attempt to make the film more pleasant.
There is no indication that the Coen brothers feel a real affinity for either Miles or Marilyn, and so there is no reason for the audience to like them, either. I didn't need or want the music to swell to be convinced that Miles was transformed; I didn't really care. All I really needed from this film was the rollicking good time it provided. Anything else was simply distracting.