It's been a while - around two years - since the Coen brothers made their last film (The Man Who Wasn't There). These two auteurs have a taste for taking a genre and dramatically reinventing it in the films they write, direct and produce together - taking ideas that on paper seem impossible to pull off and somehow making them work. In Intolerable Cruelty, Joel and Ethan have done it again - this time, they've taken on the tired old romantic comedy, mixed in a strong dose of classic screwball comedy and come up with another gem. George Clooney is Miles Massey, the most sought-after and successful divorce attorney in LA, in a performance many have compared to Cary Grant; Catherine Zeta-Jones is Marylin Rexroth, who comes up against Miles (and loses, big time) when her marriage breaks down. The film revolves around the continuing run-ins between these two, with Marylin out for revenge and Miles just after a real challenge for his abilities, and is kept moving by an excellent cast of typically engaging supporting characters - Geoffrey Rush as a slightly mad TV producer; a hired goon called Wheezy Joe; a sleazy private investigator with a silly catchphrase; Billy Bob Thornton's gormless oil heir; and easily half a dozen more I've missed. The characters somehow manage to come across as likeable, despite doing some pretty terrible things; the comedy works well and there's always a slightly darker undercurrent there to keep things from getting too sugary. As Molly would say, do yourself a favour, and check Intolerable Cruelty out.

Fargo is at the intersection of I-29 and I-10, and is home to an incompetent car saleman, (Macy, appearing Woody Allen-esque) who employs two incompetent hitmen to kidnap his wife because he needs the money. The hitmen, described by some prostitutes they employed as "weird-looking and uncircumcised" and "bigger and older" are pursued by the nearby town of Brainerd's pregnant Chief of Police, Marge (McDormand) through the carnage that results.

I have problems with movies where I cannot relate to any of the characters. It is strange that I related to the performance by Frances McDormand, as I am neither pregnant nor female. All the other people are useless, and they know it. Marge just proceeds calmly through blizzards and morning sickness "doing her job". NOTHING is going to stop her. This would be a very black comedy (at best) if it weren't for all that snow. In case you have forgotten, this is the movie with the tree-mincer, and a very long straight fence.