'Cruelty' belongs in the Clooney bin

Intolerable Cruelty centers around a matrimonial lawyer named Miles Massey, played by George Clooney, and a man-eating wife named Marilyn Rexroth, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. \nAfter Marilyn hires a private investigator (Cedric the Entertainer) to catch her millionaire husband having an affair, she files for divorce seeking half of her husband's royalties. Mr. Rexroth then hires Miles to represent him and help retain his fortune. Once Miles and Marilyn meet there is no denying a visible sexual chemistry. Both are good-looking people seeking luxurious, wealthy lives. \nUnfortunately, the movie pitter-patters around their chemistry and sidelines it with outrageous, scene-stealing characters such as Billy Bob Thornton's naïve-Texas-cowboy persona and Cedric the Entertainer's "I'm gonna nail your ass" humor.\nI tried very hard to love this film, but I kept getting side-tracked by all of the other miniscule story-lines. Although the film did have its funny moments, including Clooney's obsession with looking at his newly whitened teeth, the film suffered from the romantic part of, well, a romantic comedy. Each time Clooney and Zeta-Jones appear to fall in love, something happened and then I had to wait another 30 minutes to see them in the same predicament again. \nAlthough I rooted for Clooney and Zeta-Jones to be together, I felt that the only thing missing from their chemistry was depth. Throughout the 110-minute duration, all I knew was Clooney and Zeta-Jones played gorgeous characters who were both striving for the same goals in life: wealth and happiness. But I never got to know them as characters and unfortunately that made the ending a little too hard to believe.