Movie Notes: The Heartbreak Kid
= 1 star
Starring Ben Stiller, Malin Akerman, Michelle Monaghan
Directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly
Synopsis
Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller) is forty, single, and lonely. He hastily marries Lila (Malin Akerman) whom he meets on a San Francisco street. Unfortunately, Eddie soon learns his new bride is not what he expected, and he’s increasingly distracted by Miranda (Michelle Monaghan) during his honeymoon in Cabo.
The Good
- The film starts out in rom-com mode with a pleasant set-up of a forty year old bachelor looking to get hitched ASAP. The whole theme of why older guys get cold feet and avoid marriage is worth exploring.
- Several neat San Francisco locations — Potrero Hill, a pier near the Ferry Building, Hyde street cable car, the exterior of Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store, and bike riding over Crissy Field.
The Bad
- As soon as the honeymoon begins, the film starts going off the rails and never recovers. The initial subject of male insecurity is soon forgotten and buried under silly sight gags and compromising situations (deviated septum, horrible sunburn, senseless lies that return to haunt the wandering libido).
- There are two shockingly crass sex scenes that are meant to be funny, but frankly, I found them rather disturbing.
- I did get one big laugh near the film’s end when Stiller becomes a creepy stalker, because it was such a ridiculous place for this film to go, and it unfortunately went there.
- How much humiliation can one actor heap upon himself? Amid the constant abuse, Stiller looks bored, with an unintentional been-here-done-that kind of vibe. No surprise, since he has. I assume he got a hefty paycheck.
Conclusion
Skip it. This film definitely crosses into semi-so-bad-it’s-good territory but isn’t that bad.
The Farrelly brothers have been deservedly usurped by the Apatow machine for raunchy humor with heart, via wussy characters one actually gives a fig about.
Also, the “Ben Stiller meets constant abuse as he searches for love” has become an increasingly silly genre unto itself, in which Meet The Parents / There’s Something About Mary are still the best. Why even try to top them? It must be that paycheck.
IMDB: The Heartbreak Kid
Wikipedia: The Heartbreak Kid
Rotten Tomatoes: The Heartbreak Kid 29%
What a relief! I caught all manner of crap from my wife & the guys at work for not thinking this was an awesome movie. Stiller just phoned it in on this one. I did like the scenes he had with his dad, but even those were unnecessarily vulgar.
This movie wasn’t even satisfying as a rental. Thanks for reconfirming my opinion this movie sucked big time! IMHO, Stiller started phoning it in with that movie with the ferret — oh, Along Came Polly.
their case for making Stiller’s first wife into an annoying monster, etc. was totally un-convincing, it made him look all the more like a lame-o
Yeah — the things she did were pretty lame (singing in the car, getting sunburned, deviated septum, strange sex, not having a job) but should have been much worse.
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Nice review.Wasn’t a Ben Stiller fan ’til I watched “A night in the museum”!He’s got talent…I’m planning to start watching his older movies.
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Ben Stiller is one of the most talented comedian and actor in this generation, Click it is my favorite movie that he did,
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In your comments, moving from male insecurity to and haunt for libido is well related. Thanks