“Intolerable Cruelty”
By Leslie Branton, Revelry Writer
In California, lawyers salivate at the thought of gold-digging trophy wives and their philandering husbands. In the new movie, “Intolerable Cruelty,” George Clooney plays Miles Massey, a divorce lawyer with a penchant for trumpeting his own “Massey pre-nup,” an airtight prenuptial agreement that protects the wealthier party.
Along comes Marilyn (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the ex-wife of his client Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann from “Gilmore Girls”) and a battle of wills ensues. Marilyn is the ultimate gold-digger. After Massey wins the case and she is left with nothing, she still keeps him guessing as to her next move. She seductively challenges him saying, “I eat men like you for breakfast.”
“Intolerable Cruelty” proves to be an intelligent romantic comedy while still showing the cutthroat and devious side of marriage and divorce – American style.
Is this a satire of the state of marriage? Perhaps, but one cannot help hoping these two fall in love. When they obviously do, the movie takes a masterful twist and the surprises keep coming.
Clooney and Zeta-Jones are excellent sparing partners. Their witty banter keeps the dialogue interesting and the audience guessing. However, Zeta-Jones’ character is grossly underdeveloped, so it was a stretch to actually care about her. Clooney seems to pose and mug for the camera toward the end of the movie, making the audience wonder if it is part of his shallow character, or just poor acting. Cedric the Entertainer also makes an appearance as an infidelity private investigator, which brings an entirely different level of comedy to the movie.
This is not the average sappy romantic comedy. “Intolerable Cruelty” takes its cue from old Hollywood and provides something for men and women alike. The movie does not pander to the standard teenage female demographic, and is quite a change.
B
Pete Francis
“Untold”
By Angella Semons, Revelry Writer
Pete Francis’ solo album “Untold” may have seemed like a good idea after the breakup of his band Dispatch.
For the last eight years Dispatch brought talented earthy rock music to college campuses. Their unique mix of genres including rock, reggae and acoustic set them apart from other bands. With all three members, Brad Corrigan, Pete Francis and Chad Urmston sharing the microphone, every song this Boston band recorded was fresh and audibly pleasing.
But Francis’ new CD just does not deliver any noteworthy songs.
With a smooth and sexy voice, he has the talent to recreate the clever sound he made with Dispatch. On the CD his voice sounds perfect, but the songs sound like cheesy middle-aged band performances.
The first song, “One Train,” begins smoothly with a simple beat and his signature voice, but a few seconds into the song Francis busts out with an awkward high pitched “leave me.” Later in the song an uncomplimentary chorus shadows his words, which makes this tune sound even worse.
The below-par chorus also is present in the title track “Untold” and gives the song a gospel quality that does not seem to make sense in a song about losing his love. At the very end of this tune Francis partially redeems himself with a fun reggae ditty.
“Stones” is the best track on the CD with a slightly harder edge and more aggressive vocals. According to Francis in the bonus features the song is about man’s dependency on machines.
One bonus feature is the audio commentary in which Francis describes his inspiration for all the tunes on the CD. His stories are colorful, and he refers to The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley. But the CD does not reflect any of these memorable artists.
The end of the innovative and extremely talented band Dispatch is a tragedy. And Francis’ album could have kept their spirit and unique sound alive, but this CD does not do his former band justice. With his talent there is hope he can do better, but he definitely needs to tweak his sound.
D+