Customer Reviews

The Heartbreak Kid

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Thankfully, Anchor Bay(Genuises!!!) has re-issued this classic comedy with a nice widescreen transfer. It's a fantastic film and deserves a nice dvd. Though the dvd has little in the way of extras, I was still pleased as it one of my favorite films. I rank it right up there with great American comedies like ANNIE HALL. It's certainly the darkest stuff that Neil Simon's ever had a hand in. Grodin, Berlin, Albert and Shepherd-they're all excellent here. A great film from a great female directorial voice(Elaine May-who also directed A NEW LEAF with Walter Matthau-why is there no dvd for that film yet!). At a low list price, this film is impossible to pass up on dvd!

Charles Grodin is hilarious (as are his sideburns) and pathetic as a man who, while on his honeymoon, falls in love with another woman. He decides to prove himself to Cybil Shepard (the woman he's fallen in love with) and her father (rich, conservative, loathes Grodin) by leaving his wife in mid-honeymoon and following Cybil and her family back to Minnesota and trying to win her hand in marriage.

Classic lines include: "Don't... don't do that, honey. Don't ever put a Milky Way in someone's mouth when they don't want it." and "There is no deceit in the cauliflower."

One thing I found surprising about this movie is that Charles Grodin's character isn't really all that likable. For that matter, pretty much everyone in this film is somewhat morally bankrupt. Not that that's a bad thing... it just surprised me because the screenplay is by Neil Simon, whose stuff tends to be a bit lighter.

All in all, this is definitely worth seeking out... it'll take you back to the days when movie-makers actually knew how to make a comedy that was FUNNY...

On the surface, The Heartbreak Kid is a small movie with a simple plot. Lenny (Charles Grodin) dumps his wife (Lila played by Jeannie Berlin) of five days to pursue a beautiful coed (Kelly played by Cybill Shepherd). Standing between Lenny and Kelly is Kelly's possessive father (Mr. Corcoran). Character portrayal is almost perfect. Charles Grodin is convincing as the self-centered and reckless Lenny. Finding an actress more capable of playing the naive and boy-teasing Kelly (Cybill Shepherd) would have been very difficult. Eddie Albert (Mr. Corcoran) stands like a brick wall between Lenny and his conquest (Kelly).

More interesting than the character portrayal and story line are the underlying motives of the characters, and the consequences of their actions. Lenny abandons his wife (Lila), and leaves her brokenhearted. He is headstrong and determined, but also callous and foolish. Kelly's affection for Lenny is quite immature: she see's him as a strong father figure although he is actually egotistical and, quit frankly, short-sighted. The most mature and rational character in the film is Mr. Corcoran. The Heartbreak Kid works as a lighthearted love story; that is, cute boy wins cute girl despite their social, economic and religious differences. Thankfully, The Heartbreak Kid doesn't attempt to promote any moral themes. If it did, the film would fail. The viewer could not be satisfied with the nice cute boy wins nice cute girl conclusion because the boy (Lenny) cares for no one except himself. In summary, The Heartbreak Kid is a qualified winner with just one caveat: don't think too much.

Lenny is a repulsive, vapid nonentity who, with nothing but ambition, represents the most ugly kind of American imaginable, the ruthless upwardly mobile narcissist who will trample on anyone--including his wife--to get what he wants, namely, Cybil Shepherd, who plays a young woman from a family of old money. To use a cliche, watching this movie is like watching a car wreck. You cringe, you laugh, you shake your head in disbelief (yet you believe all the same!) as Lenny, played by Charles Grodin, manipulates his bovine wife and sets the stage to marry the Cybil Shepherd character. I've seen this movie a half a dozen times over the last twenty-five years and feel compelled to hail it a masterpiece, a variation of The Great Gatsby theme.

Jewish boy marries within his faith and within days desires to be within the bikini bottom of a blonde Minnesota princess. A remarkable 70s survey of stupidity, the sunburned Florida dream, and WASP conversational wastelands. The performances, sets and costumes are worth the price of admission. And the "pecan pie" scene in which Lenny (Grodin) dumps his dumpy new wife (Berlin) in front of the wait staff and patrons of a cheesy seafood restaurant: priceless.

Respectfully disagree with the reviewer who called this film " a pauper's 'Graduate' " It couldn't be further from the mark, and this in no way is meant to diminish Mike Nichol's excellent 1967 film. On the surface "Heartbreak Kid" doesn't appear to take itself as seriously as The Graduate, but upon repeated viewing it proves itself the other film's equal in nearly every respect and actually surpasses it in others. It's a testament to the talents of Nichol's performing partner Elaine May, who directed daughter Jeannie Berlin and Charles Grodin in this 1972 gem. Many people are thrown by the film, likely because it's neither comedy nor drama. It's closer to black comedy, but even this doesn't cover it. Its ending frustrates many, but fits the film's theme beautifully.

The individual performances are sublime - Grodin hits the ball out of the park, and Jeannie Berlin delivers a performance that makes one wonder why she never went on to greater things. She absolutely steals the scene where Grodin breaks up with her a week in to their honeymoon at a Miami Beach lobster restaurant. In one nearly continuous take, she goes from obliviousness to the depths of grief, and then to quiet, dignified resolve. Cybil Shepard is perfectly cast as the shiksa goddess in her Last Picture Show prime, serving Grodin with the same pointed disregard as he does Berlin. The film is a testament to the subtleties of human cruelty, side-splittingly funny in parts and difficult to watch in others. It's the kind of film that reveals itself in repeated viewings over the years. Also one of the few films that works equally well in vignette, and can be broken down like "Goodfellas" for its individual scenes and performances. The clip with Eddie Albert and Grodin in the restaurant when Grodin reveals his plans for marrying Albert's daughter, and then adds the "one small complication" of his being a newlywed is brilliant, and can stand on its own.

It may not have the shine of The Graduate or the haunting refrains of Simon and Garfunkel singing "Sounds of Silence" as Benjamin explores the depths of his parents' swimming pool .. but it would be a large mistake to pass it off as a pauper's version of the more famous film. I've seen both many times, and I'll make an argument for The Heartbreak Kid every time.

Social critic Tom Wolfe once labeled the Seventies "The Me Decade," when self-absorption was in high fashion, especially among white males in major metropolitan areas. Two films released at the start of that decade, both in a sense dark comedies, capture the essence of navel-gazing and the drive for upward mobility that epitomized the era.

In "Diary of a Mad Housewife", Richard Benjamin stars as a success-at-any-cost husband who rides his wife mercilessly for her unwillingness to play the role of dutiful corporate wife. Two years after "Housewife", Charles Grodin assumed the role of Lennie, a malevolently charming newlywed who dumps his bride during a severe attack of libido in Elaine May's "Heartbreak Kid".

With Benjamin's character, it's all about whipping the wife into line so he can ride the crest of success. Lennie, Grodin's character, only knows that there's some sort of mountain to be conquered - in this case, Cybil Shepherd - but initially fails to grasp the implications of what she can do for him socially and financially. In the end, each of these extended adolescents doesn't quite know what to make of their place in the world - it takes someone half Lennie's age to ask a basic question that he can't quite digest.

Both Benjamin and Grodin give stunning performances in their respective vehicles - each pouts pitifully and uses his voice in a wonderfully deprecating way at times - but because of the nature of their respective characters, Grodin is given much freer rein to let it all loose. And that he does, turning in the finest performance of his career through bouts of surface charm, sarcasm, unctuousness and inner loneliness. "Heartbreak" is a very funny satire about a man-boy who wants to have it all and does his damnedest to make it happen, half-faking it as he goes. With an inspired script and exceptional acting by all - but most especially by Grodin - it's one for the time capsule.

A film directed by Elaine May, written by Neil Simon, based on a story by Bruce Jay Friedman. If that's not good pedigree, I don't know what is. Admittedly, plenty of fine filmmakers have made bilge, but this one lives up to expectaions - it's fantastic. One of the all-time funniest Jewish comedies, I watch it every year. It's the best thing Charles Grodin ever made, and Jeannie Berlin plays her part perfectly.

It sounds a lofty claim, but for me this film is close to perfection. It's a low-key film, so it tends to get overlooked - even by people who know it - but it's hard to think of anything in it that could have been done better. It's generally funny and sometimes hilarious. The breakup scene at the restaurant is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. And there's one other thing - there's something about films made in the early '70s. They have something. And this is one of the best of them.

I think every man who finally takes the big step,has second thoughts about it at some point. Usually when a beautiful women gives him the eye.....but few men take it to the extreme that Lenny does. Who can blame him? Cybill Shepherd is absolutely stunning,and Lenny is absolutely smitten. The only question that bothered me is what in the world did she see in him? No matter,Charles Grodin got just enough attention from her that he decides he is going to make Kelly his,and nothing is going to stand in his way.....not her ultra conservative father, who can't stand Lenny.....not even the fact that he is on his honeymoon. It soon becomes very evident that Lenny is a cad,and a cold hearted liar when he finally dumps his new bride and sets out on his relentless pursuit of Kelly. I can't say enough about the acting in this movie. Eddie Albert was terrific as the protective,right wing father, from the Midwest. I think Charles Grodin did his best work ever in this movie,and really brings the character of Lenny to life. As for Cybill Shepherd as the beautiful Kelly,all you need to know about her is the title of my review.....poor Lenny and his new bride never stood a chance. She is absolutely captivating. Oh yea,and Jennie Berlin as the dumped newlywed.....she won a Oscar for best supporting actress. Terrific movie,right up there with the Graduate. Maybe give the Graduate a very slight edge due to the Simon and Garfinkle soundtrack.

This film is the 'one that got away.'It should have had an Oscar but was never going to get one.Even the professional critics had an hard time reviewing it.The best that most of them could do was to compare it badly with 'The Graduate' a film not even in the same class for subtelty as the 'Heartbreak Kid' Shepherd,Grodin,Jeannie Berlin,Eddie Albert and Audrey Lindley, all great character players, live up to that reputation.Between them they serve up a tragi-comedy which epitomises in extreme form the only too believable story of human pity selfishness and mirth.In the setting described it is a modern morality play which comes near to perfection in the genres of both comedy and tragedy melded together.It is not cinema verity,it is not black comedy but a film that is unique and defies categorisation.I have both the 1969 and 1972 versions and find I am able to watch this film again and again.The ending alone is a masterpiece of subtelty so much so that one professional reviewer was left asking "Where's the end"
Well its there and finessed with a masterly touch.After Lenny (Charles Grodin) has divorced his newly wed wife on their honeymoon, and has married Kelly Cocrcran (Cybill Shepherd),the scene moves to the Wedding Reception. Lenny does the rounds mouthing platitudes about "putting things back into the country"rather than just taking things out. Finally he sits on a settee by himself and is joined by two children, after a little talk to and fro, he turns to the boy and asks him what he is going to do.The young man replies that he doesn't know yet adding"I'm only ten." Staring into the middle distance Lenny utters the vacuous phrase:"I was ten".The children leave quickly and the film fades with Lenny still contemplating his childhood. A must see for anyone who loves films.