August 3, 1997
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY
Screenplay by Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Barbara Benedek
Synopsis by Brian Aldrich
“I’m gonna nail your ass” is the motto of slimy private detective GUS PETCH who gets video evidence of wealthy REX ROXROTH having an affair. Rex’s wife MARILYN hired Gus and uses his video as evidence in the divorce settlement trial. Her lawyer RUTH RABINOW asks for the primary residence plus 40% of the assets. However, Rex hires super lawyer MILES MASSEY to represent him. Miles puts Marilyn’s mother PATRICIA on the stand to quote her daughter as saying she only married Rex to divorce him and get his money. Marilyn loses her divorce claim.
Miles’ secretive elderly boss, HERB MEYERSON, thanks him for the huge amount of money he makes for the firm. Marilyn Rexroth shows up at his office with her new fiancé, HOWARD D. DOYLE, a rich crude oilman. They want the famous Massey prenuptial agreement for their wedding. Miles finds himself strangely attracted to Marilyn but is powerless to stop her impending marriage. When Doyle eats the pre-nup at the wedding, Miles figures she’s in it for the money after all and the marriage won’t last. Sure enough, the marriage fails, she has pictures of Doyle with another woman, and they get divorced. Miles asks her out to dinner. A few nights later she shows up on his doorstep drunk and miserable. They make love and he asks her to marry him. She accepts. At the civil wedding ceremony, Marilyn refuses to sign the pre-nup. They get married and begin to develop a life together until Miles sees Doyle acting on a TV show and realizes the marriage was a fake. Miles believes Marilyn married him to get revenge and get his money. When Miles confronts her, she confesses her motives began as revenge, but reveals she has fallen in love with him. Miles doesn’t believe her. He has Gus plant drugs in her car and has her arrested. For revenge, Marilyn informs the IRS of Miles’s undeclared income and he is audited.
Meyerson steps in to “handle things”. Miles meets with veteran mediator IRVING LEWIS who agrees to “talk” with Marilyn about her divorce demands. Later on, Miles learns Lewis is really a hitman who is going to kill Marilyn. Miles runs to stop Lewis. Meanwhile, Marilyn has paid Lewis double to work for her and when Miles shows up she has to stop Lewis from killing Miles. In the confusion, Lewis accidentally kills himself. Before the divorce agreement is final, Rex dies and Marilyn inherits his estate. Now, that both Miles and Marilyn have fortunes to protect, they reconcile, sign a new pre-nup, and resume their marriage. However, they both hire private detectives to follow one another, just in case.
Summary Criticism: Both farce and satire, the excesses of plot and character amplify the social critique in this well-crafted screenplay.
Untolerable Cruelty (2003) - imdb
Untolerable Cruelty (2003) - wiki
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