"Intolerable Cruelty" -- The Criminally Ignored Coen Brothers Movie: A Tribute, I guess...

Last night Miss Edith was in a good mood. It was just one of those unprecedented things.

I made a surprisingly decent kind of variant on tamale pie, using up the last of some excellent chili I had in the fridge – it wasn’t enough to stand on its own for dinner, but spread over a base of polenta with corn and cheddar and then baked, it was outstanding – and Notarius and I ate, literally, the entire casserole while watching, for the umpteenth time, a Coen brothers movie that no one seems to love but us. In fact, I don’t think I’m acquainted with a single person who’s even seen it. This is wrong. In a moral universe, this movie would be required viewing for anyone contemplating marriage or law school. (Not that there are any lessons to be learned, but, frankly, anyone planning a wedding or going to law school probably needs a good laugh. And god help you if you’re doing both at the same time.)

The Coen brothers have, of course, quite the following. Miss Edith remembers when she was a slip of a girl, many of her friends memorized “Raising Arizona,” a movie that Miss Edith never glommed onto. (Holly Hunter, a fine actress, makes me a little crazy for some reason. Though I ought to give the movie another shot, to be fair.) Miss Edith saw “Blood Simple” when it played at the York Square Cinema, here in New Haven, back in the day; she remembers being grossed out and not particularly amused. So while I am well aware of the Cult of Coen, I can’t say I’ve been a member of it, though I certainly was interested in the Coen brothers’ movies. They’re a category unto themselves, no question.

A few years back I saw “O Brother Where Art Thou” and the first time I saw it I was bored to tears. Then, watching it again on TV one lazy afternoon, it suddenly struck me as funny. And George Clooney, it dawned on me, was possibly the closest thing to Cary Grant going today. With that in mind, I rented “Intolerable Cruelty,” another Coen brothers movie starring Clooney. And you know what? It was fucking awesome. I could not fathom why people weren’t crying hosannas for this thing. It was, and is, a classic screwball screenplay, snappily directed, with absolutely marvelous turns by literally every single person on screen. And yet it was, I understand, a flop. This is, if you won’t mind the hyperbole, tragic.

I realize that much of the plot is improbable, to put it lightly. It doesn’t matter; in la vie Screwball, plot is just… a detail. The point of the plot is just to give the characters an excuse, however flimsy, for snapping verbal wet towels at each other’s asses. What you’re after is attractive leads, nimble and comic supporting actors, and fast funny dialogue. “Intolerable Cruelty” has all this in spades. What the hell is wrong with people? Why has everyone glommed onto “Fargo,” “O Brother Where Art Thou,” and “The Big Lebowski,” and forgotten this jewel?

I would add that I saw “The Ladykillers” not long ago and while that was not as fine a product as one might have hoped, it did provide perfectly solid entertainment. Notarius and I in fact watched it three times. He particularly liked it for the early music humor. Notarius is funny like that.

If you don’t like screwball comedy, then fine, don’t watch “Intolerable Cruelty,” but I have to say, if you skipped this one first or second time around because people said it sucked, please give it a chance. Jonathan Hadary, as Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy, needs to be seen to be believed…