THE HEARTBREAK KID
HEARTLESS LAUGHTER
By Vishal Verma

Rating:

What is it?
Holllywood humour is deteriorating and even Farrelly’s adaptation of the 70’s Elaine May’s fascinatingly funny comedy of the same name doesn’t do any good either.

The farrelly’s introduced nauseate humour to the mainstream with the highly popular There’s Something About Mary, then they followed it with the likable Me, Myself and Irene, the profound Stuck on You and the believably nuanced Fever Pitch.

But it is not so funny this time, they try to imitate a classic, 1972 film directed by Elaine May from a Neil Simon screenplay adaptation of a Bruce Jay Friedman story and end up with innovative vulgarity that goes a bit far.

The Heartbreak Kid is an average comedy with moments of hilarity, but more moments of blah. Sadly, your heart doesn’t go for this 40 year old salt and pepper haired kid!

What is it all about?
The Heartbreak Kid has a killer concept - a husband falls in love with another woman while still on his honeymoon. Ben Stiller stars as Eddie – a San Francisco sporting goods shop owner who is down on his luck when it comes to the ladies.  On Valentine’s Day, he ends up meeting Lila (Malin Ackerman), which leads to a whirlwind romance and marriage.  As they head off for the honeymoon, Eddie starts to see a different, more frightening, more psychotic side of Lila, and meets a new woman at the resort, Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), who might be a better match.

Will Eddie end up with Miranda?  Will Lila become normal again?  Is Eddie just blowing it all out of proportion? Forms the rest of the story in which Eddie is less sympathetic than the 1972 Lenny who provided a classic character study of ethnic embarrassment and upscale ambition. Co-writers Scot Armstrong, Leslie Dixon and Kevin Barnett, struggle to give Eddie some justifiable reasons for dumping his newlywed bride, and attempting to light a spark between the groom and this new Miranda girl.

It’s hard to care for Eddie’s plight because he’s being duplicitous with his new wife, and the woman he supposedly cares about.

What to look out for?
There were a couple of things that made me laugh. Ben Stiller’s return to San Francisco made me laugh, his encounter with Miranda after she’s married made me laugh, Malin Ackerman cuteness made me laugh. That’s it.

What not?
The Farrellys remove the ethnic content and make the hyper-sexual blonde the first wife (Malin Akerman) and the homey brunette (Michelle Monaghan) the object of the antihero's erotic musings. It's supposed to be daring to have the antihero ditch the hot blonde, but now the material is nothing more than an adolescent daydream.

The Farrelly’s have thrived on making everything explicit, most successfully in their previous team-up with Stiller, There's Something About Mary. But when they do that with The Heartbreak Kid, the result is only mildly amusing to fans and annoying to lovers of May's movie.

Recommended: Not for those who are looking for a hearty laugh.