{"id":5798,"date":"2013-08-15T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-15T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=5798"},"modified":"2022-10-25T11:40:07","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T15:40:07","slug":"the-chemistry-only-goes-one-way-in-the-coen-brothers-intolerable-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-chemistry-only-goes-one-way-in-the-coen-brothers-intolerable-cruelty\/","title":{"rendered":"The chemistry only goes one way in The Coen Brothers&#8217; Intolerable Cruelty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Intolerable Cruelty<\/em> is usually found at or near the bottom of Best-to-Worst films by the Coen Brothers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/arts\/the_completist\/2011\/08\/ranking_the_coen_brothers_movies.html\">#15 of 15<\/a>, by David Haglund for Slate<\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.com\/html\/movies\/2013843113_coens05.html\">#10 of 15<\/a>, by Ann Hornaday for The Seattle Times<\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nerve.com\/movies\/the-coen-brothers-from-best-to-worst\">#13 of 14<\/a>, by Andrew Osborne for Nerve<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You get the idea. But <em>Intolerable Cruelty<\/em> is the movie for you if what you&#8217;ve always wanted is a modern-day Cary Grant-type romantic comedy in which two opposites fall reluctantly in love, seasoned with dashes of that unmistakable Coen flavor:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>slapstick ultraviolence: A grotesque giant accidentally shoots himself in the mouth, and it&#8217;s played for laughs.<\/li><li>creepy weirdness: The nightmarish boss from hell is straight out of an old Sam Raimi movie.<\/li><li>basement humor: This screenplay&#8217;s idea of witty banter is to have everybody say &#8220;nail your ass&#8221; over and over. A lot.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s biggest failing is that the chemistry between the leads only goes one way. Whether by design or Catherine Zeta-Jones&#8217; blank performance, George Clooney plays smitten kitten to her ice queen. Clooney falls all over her, mugging like a madman (as if he were doing an impression of Jim Carrey, come to think of it), while she looks mildly bored at best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Intolerable Cruelty is usually found at or near the bottom of Best-to-Worst films by the Coen Brothers: #15 of 15, by David Haglund for Slate #10 of 15, by Ann Hornaday for The Seattle Times #13 of 14, by Andrew Osborne for Nerve You get the idea. But Intolerable Cruelty is the movie for you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,2],"tags":[1673,1975,226,230,84,227,64],"class_list":["post-5798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2-stars","category-movies","tag-1673","tag-catherine-zeta-jones","tag-coen-brothers","tag-ethan-coen","tag-george-clooney","tag-joel-coen","tag-romantic-comedy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/intolerable-cruelty.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-1vw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1222,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/burn-after-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":5798,"position":0},"title":"The Coen Brothers confound expectations, as usual, with Burn After Reading","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Although every Coen Brothers film is unmistakably theirs alone (can the Auteur Theory apply to more than one person at once?), Joel and Ethan have a reputation for rarely making the films audiences want or expect from them at any given time. Clooney and McDormand give this movie two thumbs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/burn-after-reading-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1212,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/big-lebowski\/","url_meta":{"origin":5798,"position":1},"title":"The Dude burns one on the way over in The Coen Brothers&#8217; The Big Lebowski","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In 1998, when all the world wanted from Joel Coen and Ethan Coen was another Fargo, they got The Big Lebowski instead. The Coen Brothers recently repeated this trick by following up another masterpiece, No Country for Old Men, with the happy-go-lucky Burn After Reading. This blog wonders if this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Big Lebowski","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/big-lebowski-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/big-lebowski-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/big-lebowski-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/big-lebowski-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/big-lebowski-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":606,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-8-best-movies-i-saw-in-2007\/","url_meta":{"origin":5798,"position":2},"title":"The 8 Best Movies I Saw in 2007","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"February 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Followers of this blog (a statistic which I believe can be plotted on an arc approaching zero) may have noticed an accumulation of digital dust this past year. Indeed, I watched my own blog drop off the first page of Google results for my own name. Who's feeling lucky? A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Movies&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/main-menu\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Orphanage","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/orphanage-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/orphanage-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/orphanage-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/orphanage-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/orphanage-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5890,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/ghost-town-is-the-sixth-sense-as-a-romantic-comedy\/","url_meta":{"origin":5798,"position":3},"title":"Ghost Town is The Sixth Sense as a romantic comedy","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"September 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"David Koepp's Ghost Town pulls at the heartstrings without being too nauseating. With a tagline that implies The Sixth Sense as a romantic comedy, its tone and subject matter are roughly comparable to As Good As It Gets: the thawing of a misanthrope with some good qualities. It mostly earns\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tea Leoni, Ricky Gervais, and Greg Kinnear in Ghost Town","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ghost-town.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ghost-town.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ghost-town.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ghost-town.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ghost-town.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1207,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/midnight-run\/","url_meta":{"origin":5798,"position":4},"title":"De Niro and Grodin are somewhere between Toledo and Cleveland in Martin Brest&#8217;s Midnight Run","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Martin Brest's Midnight Run is an appealingly loose comedy built on a solid premise. It's a classic, almost cliched Hollywood scenario: Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) is one of the world's last honest cops, rewarded for his integrity by divorce and demotion to the humiliating (and dangerous) level of bounty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;3 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/midnight-run-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/midnight-run-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/midnight-run-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/midnight-run-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/midnight-run-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1687,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/bottle-rocket\/","url_meta":{"origin":5798,"position":5},"title":"On the Run from Johnny Law in Wes Anderson&#8217;s Bottle Rocket","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"March 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Wes Anderson and co-writer Owen Wilson's feature debut Bottle Rocket is based on their 1992 short film of the same name. Like Kevin Smith's Clerks and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, Bottle Rocket may not have turned the world upside down, but is now viewed as a key filmmaker's ur text.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;4 Stars&quot;","block_context":{"text":"4 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/4-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bottle Rocket","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/bottle-rocket-field.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/bottle-rocket-field.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/bottle-rocket-field.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/bottle-rocket-field.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/bottle-rocket-field.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5798"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7437,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5798\/revisions\/7437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}