Intolerable Cruelty
Movie, 2003, The 2000s, Set in A divorce lawyer
Intolerable Cruelty is #10 of 21 in release order and #10 of 21 in chronological order in the The Coen Brothers.
The story
A revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverly Hills lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce.
Intolerable Cruelty recap
Miles Massey, a top Los Angeles divorce lawyer and inventor of the Massey prenup, which no one has ever broken, is bored with winning. He represents Rex Rexroth, a real estate developer caught on video cheating by the private investigator Gus Petch, hired by Rex's wife Marylin, a beautiful woman who marries rich men and divorces them for money. Miles is attracted to Marylin, but in court he calls a Swiss concierge who testifies she asked for help finding a rich, foolish man to marry; she gets nothing. Marylin then marries an oil tycoon, Howard D. Doyle, and makes a show of insisting on the Massey prenup, which he tears up. They soon divorce and she becomes rich. At a lawyers' convention in Las Vegas, Miles falls for her and marries her, without a prenup, then learns Doyle was a soap actor paid to play the part. It is the second film in the Coen Brothers' Idiot Trilogy, with Clooney again as a vain man outwitted.
Intolerable Cruelty ending explained
Miles signs away his assets, Marylin tears up the prenup, and they stay married. Fearing he will lose everything, Miles hires an asthmatic hitman, Wheezy Joe, to kill Marylin; then Rex dies and leaves her his fortune, so Miles tries to call it off. Marylin offers Joe more to kill Miles instead, but Joe mistakes his gun for his inhaler and shoots himself. Miles gives up his assets in a new contract, and Marylin rips it up. Gus becomes the host of a TV show about divorce videos.
Where to watch Intolerable Cruelty
Intolerable Cruelty isn't on a US streaming service right now. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 6.3/10, Rotten Tomatoes 76%
Where it fits
- Release order: after The Man Who Wasn't There, before The Ladykillers.
- Chronological order: after The Man Who Wasn't There, before The Ladykillers.
Cast
- George Clooney as Miles
- Catherine Zeta-Jones as Marilyn
- Geoffrey Rush as Donovan Donaly
- Cedric the Entertainer as Gus Petch
- Edward Herrmann as Rex Rexroth
- Paul Adelstein as Wrigley
- Richard Jenkins as Freddy Bender
- Billy Bob Thornton as Howard D. Doyle
- Julia Duffy as Sarah Sorkin
- Jonathan Hadary as Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy
- Tom Aldredge as Herb Myerson
- Stacey Travis as Bonnie Donaly
Directed by Joel Coen.