The Heartbreak Kid | Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd | Who knew double egg salad could explain so...

The Heartbreak Kid | Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd | Well done, but don't get it as a date movie

DVDs:

The Heartbreak Kid

	The Heartbreak Kid Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd Starz / Anchor Bay, 2002 average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

After her brilliant career in a comedy duo with Mike Nichols, Elaine May made tentative progress as a director, making only four films between 1971 and 1987 (her last being the disastrous but underrated Ishtar). Released in 1972, The Heartbreak Kid (from a screenplay by Neil Simon) is widely considered her best work from behind the camera, and it's still one of the most accomplished--but least recognized--comedies of the 1970s. Charles Grodin landed one of his best roles as Lenny, a newlywed husband who meets a gorgeous blonde (Cybill Shepherd) while on his honeymoon, and finds his new bride, Lila (played by May's daughter, Jeannie Berlin), unappealing by comparison. When Lila is forced to rest with a severe case of sunburn, Lenny's free to pursue his new interest, oblivious to the manipulative games that he'll soon be subjected to. May and screenwriter Simon draw plenty of pain, awkwardness, and embarrassment from hilarious situations, giving this comedy a perceptive awareness of human foibles and unchecked desires. It's a newlywed's worst nightmare come true, made enjoyable because we're watching it happen to someone else. Grodin's a prime choice of casting for expressing the movie's lusty anxiety--he's a schmuck, but you can still sympathize with the anguish he's brought on himself. --Jeff Shannon

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Who knew double egg salad could explain so much?

A fine, fine film--truly one of the best ever made. Not too many scenes in cinema equal the one where Lila and Len make a stop at the coffee shop on their way to the Miami honeymoon. Juxtaposing the happy, carefree singing in the car, hopeful and driving to a new life and future, with the now-classic shot of Lila making a sloppy mess eating her double egg salad sandwich, yapping throughout, and the reaction shot: Len realizing in that quick instant that he has made the hugest mistake of his life. Excellent!

Well done, but don't get it as a date movie

If you want light comedy that will leave warm, romantic feelings at the end, you should probably try A New leaf (by the same director) instead of this film.

That said, this is an intelligent, watchable movie that leaves you thinking back on the characters the next day.

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Sharp satire on marriage and romance

Loosely based on a short story by one of America's top satirists, Bruce Jay Friedman ("A Change of Plan"), The Heartbreak Kid (yes, this is the original version from 1972) is a sharp piece of biting comedy that skewers the American way when it comes to "getting ahead" in the romance department.

And who but a salesman as the male protagonist--after marrying in haste a goofy, blowzy Jewish princess (well played by Jeannie Berlin, daughter of director Elaine May), our salesman (Charles Grodin (in "no one else could do the role justice" casting) falls for WASPy Cybill Shepherd whose father, Eddie Albert, is a hard-nosed cynical father WASP who knows a sleazy opportunist when he sees one, and instinctively hates our salesman right off the bat.

The casting is absolutely perfect; the dialogue crackles and snaps, and I would have to say that this is definitely one of the best American comedies not only of the 1970s, but even one of the best 25 American comedies in the last 40 years.

Comedy, I think, should not be sappy, saccharine, schmaltzy, or dumb. It should bite and crackle and generate guffaws while at the same time digging into what makes us human--i.e., imperfect and therefore dumb and/or wrong in what we do to ourselves and/or those around us. This comedy definitely fills the bill on all scores.

If you want a smart comedy that will make you laugh out loud, here it is. It's great.

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The Heartbreak Kid

Lenny and Lila are a young Jewish couple who meet in New York, fall in love and marry. They decide to honeymoon in Miami Beach. On the drive down, Lenny starts noticing little things about Lila that are annoying..how loud she can be, how she eats. Their first day in Miami, she gets a bad sun burn and is confined to their room..he spends his time at the beach and meets the ultimate blonde WASP from Minnesota, Kelly...and immediately falls in love. How does he tell Lila and how does he tell Kelly's father he's on his HONEYMOON??
This is a hilarious comedy with Charles Grodin, Jeannie Berlin and Cybill Shephard.

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A Pauper's "Graduate"!

From the opening scenes accompanied with the opening sound track the similarities with a much better comedy "The Graduate" becomes clear. The Simon and Garfunkel-sounding clone track to the very "odd" ending borrow heavily from "The Graduate" formula. Both films cover taboo topics and things that just weren't done in those days designed to shock and entertain the audience at the same time. Both make heavy use of the popular music soundtrack with Burt Bacharach's doing here what Simon & Garfunkel's did to much better effect on "The Graduate". I sympathise with another reviewer who's just as confused as I was a couple of years back with the choices for AFI best ever comedies and I think the selection criteria had nothing to do with films that necessarily make you laugh until you split your sides but more so films with "substance" as well although I am not suggesting that I believe this film should be among the list either.

The "substance" here is arguably the directing skills of Elaine May although I have to say that the best part of the movie which earns it at least 2 stars is the "Confession" scene and Jeannie Berlin thoroughly deserved her Oscar nomination for a fantastic job making you laugh and mostly feel her intense heartbreak when she realises that the man she loved has severely betrayed her. First class acting!

The DVD is disappointing though in that although there are no white spots and other age-related imperfections which ironically means that the master was hardly ever used often enough which speaks volumes for the on-going popularity (or rather lack)of this film but the overall picture quality barely rises above the level of average VHS quality. The sound quality is Dolby Digital Mono which is okay by Mono standards but nothing to shout about. There are also no Special Features worth mentioning about.

Overall, this is an amusing but mostly chastising and thought-provoking film about people using people for their own selfish desires without considering the consequences to the "innocents" that they hurt along the way. Grodin's character victimises the "innocent" Berlin's character just as Shepherd's character victimises Grodin's early on although the telling ending speaks volumes suggesting Grodin's character is still not satisfied and that even more heartbreak is on the cards as he seeks to fulfil his insatiable desires irrespective of the costs on others who have the misfortune to be in his path.

Interesting film but poor dvd version that makes you wonder why you should "upgrade" from the VHS. If you really have to though, wait for a much better restored dvd version both picture and sound quality-wise.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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