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Review #541 of 365
Movie Review of The Heartbreak Kid (2007) [R] 115 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $6.00
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 5 October 2007
Time: 4:10 pm
DVD Release Date: 26 December 2007 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
Soundtrack: Download now from 
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Directed by: Bobby Farrelly (Fever Pitch) and Peter Farrelly (Fever Pitch)
Screenplay by: Scot Armstrong (School for Scoundrels) • Leslie Dixon (Hairspray) • Kevin Barnett ("Unhitched") • Bobby Farrelly • Peter Farrelly based on the Neil Simon screen play from 1972
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Ben Stiller (Night at the Museum) • Malin Akerman (The Brothers Solomon) • Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible III) • Jerry Stiller (Hairspray) • Rob Corddry (I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry) • Carlos Mencia ("Mind of Mencia") • Danny R. McBride (Hot Rod) • Roy Jenkins (Thank You For Smoking) • Michael Kromka (Loverboy) • Nicholas Kromka (Loverboy)
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The Heartbreak Kid reminded me a lot of last fall's
The Last Kiss. If this was supposed to be a comedy, shouldn't it have been funny? Next on the list of questions…Whose idea was it to put the Farrelly brothers in charge of a Neil Simon play film remake? The original film debuted in December of 1972 and starred: Charles Grodin as Lenny Cantrow, Cybill Shepherd as Kelly Corcoran, and Jeannie Berlin as Lila Kolodny. The basics of the story seem to be about the same. Believe it or not, but the idea is that a guy really falls in love on his honeymoon, but not with his new wife, with someone else. Instead of Lenny we now have Eddie (Ben Stiller). He marries Lila (Malin Ackerman) sort of on a lark. He meets her in front of a Laundromat near his home in San Francisco when a thief steals her purse, and he plays hero for a day and tries to stop him. He's unsuccessful, but the gesture moves Lila to visit the sporting good store he owns under the guise of needing a new jacket. An awkward moment between Eddie, his real-life and character's father, Doc (Jerry Stiller), and Lila leads them to a real date. Encouragement from both Doc and Eddie's best friend, Mac (Rob Corddry), and a preemptive strike to prevent her relocation to The Netherlands lands them in wedlock before they really know much about each other that well. Mac sets them up with a honeymoon to his favorite little resort in Mexico run by Uncle Tito (Carlos Mencia); and, before they are even half way there, Eddie begins to doubt his decision. Lila is not the woman of his dreams. She cannot seem to stop singing along with the car radio. She prefers very aggressive sexual positions during love-making. She has a deviated septum from a cocaine-snorting addiction that she failed to mention prior to their engagement, and these are only the beginning. Their honeymoon together couldn't have been fated any worse were it not for his chance encounter with the recently separated, Miranda (Michelle Monaghan) with whom he falls instantly in love.
"… the Farrelly Brothers have been replaced by Judd Apatow as the kings of adult comedy…"
A series of chance circumstances creates a misunderstanding whereby Miranda believes him to be a widower rather than the newlywed he actually is. Their relationship flourishes due to misdirection he uses on Lila to prevent her from figuring things out. Well, true, Neil Simon is the master of situational romantic comedy. In this case, however, it fails to blend well with the crude, rude, and socially unacceptable gross-out shtick of the Farrelly Brothers. The resulting mess is a bunch of characters constantly at odd with themselves. There are no really 'nice' people here for whom to root. Likewise, there's no one for whom to feel really sorry. Just when you think you might want to do either, the character is sure to let you down. The story almost turns into an enlightening drama, but the ending ruins that. Eddie Cantrow really isn't a very nice guy, and he really doesn't know what he wants in life. He turns out to be relatively pathetic.
If there were any doubts that the Farrelly Brothers have been replaced by Judd Apatow as the kings of adult comedy, The Heartbreak Kid puts them to rest. They've lost their touch, and Judd Apatow seems to be just getting started. The irony doesn't stop there. Actually Ben Stiller seems to be unable to do much but parody himself. Malin Ackerman who just appeared in The Brothers Solomon finds herself playing another completely unlikable character capable of driving men straight to the monastery despite her supposedly being just shades from Cameron Diaz—NOT! Much like The Last Kiss, The Heartbreak Kid (2007) leaves you feeling just about as icky as possible and wondering if you should have listened and gone to see Good Luck Chuck instead. The similarity between the plots and plot structures are uncanny and unfortunate for both films, but the latter exceeds expectations while the former scores far, far, far below. The worst part is that it's hard to know if The Heartbreak Kid, in the hands of other directors (supposedly James Bobin replaced Barry Sonnenfeld before the Farrelly Brothers took over) could have been updated effectively and humorously for the 2000s--this version of the film, however, merely adds fuel to the adage, "don't try to fix what's not broken".
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Other Projects Featuring The Heartbreak Kid (2007)
Cast Members
Ben Stiller • Malin Akerman • Michelle Monaghan
Jerry Stiller • Rob Corddry • Carlos Mencia
Danny R. McBride • Roy Jenkins • Michael Kromka
Nicholas Kromka
Co-Directors
Bobby Farrelly • >Peter Farrelly
Writers
Scot Armstrong • Leslie Dixon • Kevin Barnett • Bobby Farrelly • > • Peter FarrellyCD Soundtrack
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Review-lite
The Heartbreak Kid (2007) [max of 150 words]
Going from bad to worse, poor Ben Stiller seems to have found himself in purgatory with the Farrelley Brother's remake of Neil Simon's The Heartbreak Kid. In Night at the Museum, Stiller's character found himself chased by a T. Rex. Here he's the victim of his own bad decisions, especially that to marry Lila (Malin Ackerman) who, like a Transformer®, is "more than meets the eye" in all the wrong ways you can imagine. Without much real humor, and a story that was poorly ported to the 2000s, the film flounders 'Farrelley' well into oblivion.
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