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Intolerable Cruelty (2003) - 9/10
Among the Coen's funniest works. The script is as sharp and witty as anything theyve ever written and moves at the fast pace O' Brother Where Art Thou. The cast, led by George Clooney, is really excellent. Even Catherine Zeta-Jones holds her own though admittedly she is the weakest part of the film.
The climax to Wheezy Joe's arc is one of the funniest gags ive ever seen. Billy-bob Thortons bit is also excellent.
Joel is a very competent director here too. He puts together dozen or more ways to shoot the same rooms that keep it visually interesting while the cast delivers this top shelf dialog.
At is core its a romcom but it also isnt. It stands next to them in almost in a meta commentary mocking the genre. Here the Coens strike a norm macdonald-esqu snicker that only he could do where we and him are somehow cohorts in the joke he's crafting.
Its sarcastic and ironic and insincere and somehow in the face of all that its charming. The only real critique i have is due to its comedic insincerity its climax is by nature insincere. Perhaps there was better way to resolve the picture but atleast as it resolves it manages to still be cute, funny and little bit witty.
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