[Hyper-Review] Intolerable Cruelty

[pinback]

I was a bit reticent to watch IC, in that it was most definitely the worst-reviewed Coen Bros. movie that they've made, with every other critic claiming, "Welp, they finally lost it."

These critics are stupid. The only person who wouldn't like this movie simply won't like any Coen Bros. movies, more specifically their comedies. A raucous lark of a romantic comedy, I laughed more in this movie than in any of their previous comedies, including Raising Arizona and Big Lebowski, which admittedly I thought were better movies, and I smiled more during them, but Cruelty gives up the belly laughs aplenty. Most of these are creditable to George Clooney, who out of nowhere has been transformed by the Coens into one of this generation's best and most compelling comedic leads.

Does the silliness degrade to even more silliness toward the end? Does the "shootout" with the hired assassin clash with the considerable wit of the rest of the movie? Sure, it ain't perfect. But like any Coen movie, it's always interesting, it's always entertaining, and it's always something you'll never see in any other movie.

And, any flaws that the film might have are nearly made up for by the fact that, in Clooney and Zeta-Jones, you have, arguably, the two greatest-looking people who have ever lived, so no matter what your tastes, even if you don't like what they're saying, you just gotta watch 'em say it.

That Cathy. Jesus Christ. I mean, I'm more about inner beauty, you know me, but... has there ever been a more perfect visage of female beauty? But that's a discussion for another day.

***1/2