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'The Heartbreak Kid' movie review |
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Written by Carla Meyer, MCT
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Friday, 05 October 2007 |
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THE HEARTBREAK KID
2 ½ stars
Cast: Ben Stiller, Malin Akerman, Michelle Monaghan, Rob Corddry, Carlos Mencia, Scott Wilson, Danny McBride and Jerry Stiller
Directors: Peter and Bobby Farrelly
Writers: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly, Leslie Dixon and Scot Armstrong, from a screenplay by Neil Simon, based on a short story by Bruce Jay Friedman
Distributor: Paramount
Running time: 116 minutes
Rated R (language, strong sexual content, crude humor, drug use)
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The Farrelly brothers' remake of "The Heartbreak Kid" alters the central situation from the 1972 comedy starring Charles Grodin. Instead of going for a blond goddess while on his honeymoon with someone else, Ben Stiller's character, Eddie, marries the goddess and falls for a more accessible woman.
If this is supposed to make Eddie more sympathetic, it doesn't. And that's fine in the darker, weirder moments of "The Heartbreak Kid." But those moments don't come often or quickly enough. Scripted by Peter and Bobby Farrelly and two other writers from the original script by Neil Simon, in turn inspired by a short story by Bruce Jay Friedman, "The Heartbreak Kid," though amusing for stretches and uproariously funny at times, is too obviously the product of too many cooks.
Apart from Stiller's real-life father Jerry Stiller's senior-raunch moments as Eddie's dad, the picture appears at first to be just another comedy in which Stiller plays a nice but put-upon guy. You know — the roles in which he has specialized since breaking through as a nice but put-upon guy in the Farrellys' "There's Something About Mary."
Owner of a San Francisco sporting-goods store, Eddie is too picky and therefore unsuccessful at relationships. Eddie's father and married best friend (a very funny Rob Corddry) goad him to take the plunge, even if the plunge to which the randy father refers doesn't necessarily involve matrimony. What he's talking about is more like a lunge.
Eddie is now 40, and his romantic situation grows sadder by the day. The only adult single guest at his ex-girlfriend's wedding, he's seated at the kids table — a sitcom-like setup saved by a pair of bratty twins (Michael Kromka and Nicholas Kromka).
His attempt to stop a would-be mugger leads to a meeting with the gorgeous Lila (Malin Akerman). After a courtship montage of amusing kissing scenes, Eddie and Lila wed, mainly because Lila's company won't transfer her to Europe if she's married. Things go awry during a car trip down to Cabo San Lucas — hardly an unexpected development in a Stiller comedy, especially one involving a honeymoon (the film evokes "Along Came Polly" as well as the original "Kid").
The little-known Akerman seems to be doing a Cameron Diaz impression here, leading me to write words I never thought I would: She's not the actress Cameron Diaz is. But Akerman is very game, so hat's off to that.
Putting a Diaz-esque woman in the role of nightmare bride also subverts the premise of "Something About Mary," which should interest students currently enrolled in Late 20th Century Broad Comedy cinema classes. For everyone else, Lila just seems unpleasant and pathetic.
It turns out that Eddie didn't know his girlfriend of several weeks very well, which he discovers in a scenario that will bring chills to all overgrown adolescents who fear partners with complications. (These revelatory moments work best as showcases for Stiller's acting; he knows 1,000 ways to look horrified.)
Lila sings along with too many songs on the radio and is so wild in the sack that she threatens to injure Eddie. This is too much for a skittish guy.
But it's not too much for the audience, or at least not yet. Lila's no picnic, but that doesn't excuse Eddie for lying to her so he can spend time with Miranda, a down-to-earth lacrosse coach and fellow hotel guest played by the appealing Michelle Monaghan ("Mission: Impossible III").
Scenes with Miranda and her extended Mississippi family exude the real-people quality that's a Farrelly signature. But these moments go on too long, and a running bit with Carlos Mencia as a hotel employee takes quite a while to pay off.
That other Farrelly signature — truly outrageous comedy — gets meted out in "The Heartbreak Kid." Not every setup is successful, but a few are side-splittingly funny. Yet one of the funniest sequences, involving Stiller and a train, is also one of the cleanest.
The Farrellys' decidedly un-PC approach usually comes with an accompanying show of heart, which "Mary" had but "Kid" ultimately lacks. Though the darker sections intrigue, they don't gel with the Farrellys' sensibility or the film as a whole. | Only registered users can write comments.
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