Tuesday, November 15, 2016

From my facebook posts at www.facebook.com/BloomingtonILDivorce :

This divorce attorney's favorite movie about divorce: "Intolerable Cruelty" (and Honorable Mention: "The War of the Roses")

A generally unpleasant subject has somehow yielded some pretty good entertainment.

"Intolerable Cruelty," by far my favorite divorce movie, is a 2003 Coen Brothers film starring George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Billy Bob Thornton. One could call it a dark comedy due to its sardonic take on divorce and divorce law practice, but it is extremel...y silly and so full of jokes that it took me six-or-so viewings to feel like I'd caught all the humor. It makes light of the dehumanizing aspects of the divorce process, caricaturing litigants and lawyers alike as heartless and superficial, rendered thus by the adversarial aspects of divorce litigation. From beneath this cold satire eventually emerges a layer of humanity and warmth, as the protagonists learn, despite themselves and their experiences, to believe again in the existence and value of love. Mostly, it cleverly makes something very painful very funny without resorting to inducing cringes, all set to a strange and prominent Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack.

"The War of the Roses" is also a satire of the dehumanizing aspects of divorce, and is certainly a dark comedy, but without the warmth or lightheartedness of Intolerable Cruelty. It features Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner going from romance to all-out war, and the shocking escalation of hostility is somehow also the fun of the movie.

Others: I confess I haven't seen the classic film "Kramer vs. Kramer" as it's just never sounded like much fun. Neither do I think I'm the target audience for such movies as "Stepmom", "Father's Day" and "Mother's Day." I think I saw "Liar Liar" twice in the theaters for some reason but didn't actually like it that much. Sylvester Stallone's "Over the Top" supposedly involves a heavy dose of divorce drama as well, but I somehow never caught those parts around all the arm-wrestling.

Let me know if your favorite films involving divorce or family law are different, or if you have thoughts or different opinions on mine!

www.coxandassoc.com/J-Harrison-Fulk
 

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