Intolerable Cruelty

by Ethan Coen

From the creators of Fargo and O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Intolerable Cruelty is the story of a fabulously successful Los Angeles divorce attorney, Miles Massey (George Clooney). Bored and restless with his success, Massey's on the lookout for new challenges when he encounters the much-divorced Marylin Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a hard-nosed beauty pursuing financial independence through serial matrimony. As the two square off both personally and professionally, what follows is the mother of all battles of the sexes.

Full of the same sharp wit, snappy dialogue, and charmingly corrupt characters that their fans have come to love, the Coen brothers' latest film is a screwball comedy for the current age.

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2003

About the author

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are four-time Academy Award winning American filmmakers. For more than twenty years, the pair have written and directed numerous successful films, ranging from screwball comedies (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy) to film noir (Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men), to movies where genres blur together (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and Barton Fink). The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly, although until recently Joel received sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing. They often alternate top billing for their screenplays while sharing film credits for editor under the alias Roderick Jaynes. They are known in the film business as "the two-headed director", as they share such a similar vision of what their films are to be that actors say that they can approach either brother with a question and get the same answer.

Reviews

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intolerable Cruelty by Ethan Coen

9 out of 10


For some reason, Goodreads is upset with me.

First, they kicked me out for asking someone about a picture, by Botticelli, as it happens, or maybe it was because I am so adamant about Orange woland, and my large audience got frustrated – this is more of a joke…

- I was almost sure nobody reads, well, almost anything here

So let us give it a new try, and ‘post’ a very short comment, this is a good motion picture, if not one of the most spectacular made by the acclaimed Coen Brothers.
Maybe this will not work.

- I have made some five attempts to post reviews and they gave me ‘error’

No mention of the Confidence Man here, or at least, there is no link to this.

[Rob Kotaska · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always loved this film. The script is, as it always has been, wonderful.