Intolerable Cruelty
Universal Pictures | Release Date: October 10, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireDamon Wise
Tight as a drum, glamorous and exquisitely funny, this one should earn them (Coens) enough cash to make five more offbeat minor masterpieces like "The Man Who Wasn't There" -- and the Coens deserve that as much as we do. Read full review
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The movie is a delicious, consistently hilarious screwball farce that gives Clooney his best comedy role to date and should finally, forever, lift the Coens into the wide-release movie mainstream. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Something not seen in movie theaters for a long time: an intelligent, modern screwball comedy, a minor classic on the order of competent, fast-talking curve balls about deception and greed like Mitchell Leisen's "Easy Living" and Billy Wilder's "Major and the Minor." Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
It is wonderful for what it is: a delightful, thoroughly satisfying comedy of modern manners. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Takes the traditional romantic comedy and tweaks it by way of "The War of the Roses." Rarely has strife between the sexes been so ruthless, so civilized, and so funny. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Elegant, cheerfully cynical fun of the kind we used to get regularly from Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks and other masters of the classic Hollywood screwball comedy -- all those '30s-'40s movies about rich people sloshed, or acting crazy and running romantically amok. Read full review
88
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Hilariously overblown, "Cruelty" fairly pops at the seams with the beloved eccentricity of Joel and Ethan Coen, from the fiendishly ludicrous scenarios and casually tossed off visual gags to the razor-sharp repartee. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
A work of gentle, continual hilarity that feels far more ordinary than other Coen works and yet has every bit of the originality and exactness that makes the brothers' best films so wonderful. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Zeta-Jones is merely ravishing, but Clooney owns the film. Ordinarily best at sardonic, man's-man confidence, he strides through Intolerable Cruelty with fantastic screwball zest. To see Clooney tenderize, season, grill, and serve this ham hock of a role is to see an old-fashioned virtuoso in perpetual motion. Read full review
80
Film ThreatChris Barsanti
Probably the Coen’s funniest movie since “Raising Arizona.” Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
It's over-the-top. It's wild. It's filled with outrageous behavior all around. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
None of this would work, of course, without stylish performances in the leads and Mr. Clooney and Ms. Zeta-Jones do themselves and their dubious characters proud.
80
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Smart, silly, splenetic and a bit smug, it's a movie that might put a viewer's teeth on edge were it not for its winning lead performances. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
Even when the movie sags and strains a bit in Act III, Clooney keeps it flying with old-fashioned movie-star allure. He's got it all: Cary Grant's looks and, inside, Bob Hope's snake-oil-salesman soul. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Near the end of this smart, speedy romantic farce, the comic engine hits a wall and sputters. Until then, this Coen brothers film -- easily their silliest -- is fueled by a screwball fizz that keeps the laughs popping. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The results have the Coens' usual tartness most of the way, before turning soft and gooey at the center. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
There are laughs here aplenty, and sexy, goofy, off-the-cuff charm. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Intolerable Cruelty is a romantic comedy, but it has enough dark, strange, and cynical moments to qualify as a full-fledged part of the Coen canon. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Not brilliantly funny nor incisively clever, Intolerable Cruelty is still moderately satirical and laugh-out-loud enjoyable. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
If Intolerable Cruelty isn't a convincing love story, it's a hugely entertaining one, with comic relief -- in the form of Cedric the Entertainer as a voyeuristic private eye and Tom Aldredge as a decaying law-firm boss issuing directives while hooked up to life-support -- piled on top of the comedy. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Mostly, it's a Coen brothers movie so slick, so careful in rationing its darkly perverse and personal elements, that it seems suspiciously sweet. Intolerable Cruelty feels like the Coens' peculiar new way of being cynical, by pretending they're not. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
While it's not nearly as beguiling as the Coen's last pic, the uncanny "The Man Who Wasn't There," Cruelty is still a brisk hoot. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The film is often at odds with itself as a sincere work of romantic comedy, as Wilder's sometimes were, too. Nonetheless, it's determined to keep Clooney's considerable comedic skills front and center. He's never been looser, sexier, or more antic. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthie Stein
Too slick but amusing marital farce. Read full review
70
VarietyDavid Rooney
A thoroughly entertaining comedy about love, lawyers and fat divorce settlements. While a slight imbalance in the romantic formula stops it just short of truly soaring, the crackling dialogue and buoyant wordplay make this a delightful throwback to classic screwball comedies. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
The first half of Intolerable Cruelty is more than tolerable; it's a dopey kick full of goofy jokes tossed off so quickly you're reminded less of bickering-bantering Grant and Rosalind Russell than Groucho and Chico Marx. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
So clever, so funny, so suavely entertaining that it comes as a shock to realize that it's not nearly as satisfying as all those qualities would lead you to believe. Read full review
70
SalonCharles Taylor
Has a solid farce structure, a bunch of ripe second bananas, and two sinfully attractive stars ready to raise comic hell. So why is a movie with so many genuine laughs and so many good bits only fitfully amusing? The short answer is that the Coen brothers seem to be incapable of trusting their material. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
A collaboration between the notoriously offbeat Coen brothers and thoroughly mainstream screenwriters Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone, this piquant romantic comedy is both resolutely generic and bristling with barbs that go down with a delicious fizz and leave behind a refreshing blast of tartness. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
The Coens engineer a funny, entertaining battle of the sexes here, but the preponderance of indelible male characters and less memorable female roles render it something of a mismatch. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
If it's not quite as funny as you want it to be, it's still more than enough to keep you entertained. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie has many scenes of delicious comedy, Clooney and Zeta-Jones play their characters perfectly in an imperfect screenplay. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The fault isn't Clooney's alone. The Coen brothers contrive a few spectacularly funny bits and pieces but rarely get into a flow. Too often they mistake facetiousness for slapstick invention or wit, and they don't follow through on their best ideas. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The Coens do an efficient job of stamping their signature grotesquerie on sumptuous Beverly Hills and Las Vegas settings and ladling on gallows humor and malice, sometimes with the verve of early Robert Zemeckis. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
The glibness exhausts you, and the Coens are emotionally so far outside their subject that Intolerable Cruelty is finally no different from most of the other dumb slapstick spoofs that pass for screwball comedy these days. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJean Oppenheimer
The Coen brothers had a golden opportunity to make a darkly humorous, deliciously clever battle of the sexes, and they let it slip through their fingers. Instead, the duo... settled for a broad farce that is long on manic, cartoonish behavior and short on intelligence and wit. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
With Intolerable Cruelty, though, something scares me: I cannot detect a heartbeat of feeling, no matter how close I press a stethoscope against the star machinery of George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Intolerable Cruelty seems the kind of movie that results from two essentially erudite, anarchic talents playing down to the masses. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Intolerable Cruelty, while tolerable, isn't very radical--or very good, either. The Coens wrote the script eight years ago on assignment, not intending to direct it, and that may explain why the result often lacks their customary bizarro facetiousness. Read full review
50
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
This is a decidedly hit or miss deal which, despite the current outpouring of critical praise, is destined to rank among the Coen's least memorable achievements. Read full review
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