The Farrelly brothers reteam with Ben Stiller for the first time since the breakout hit ‘There’s Something About Mary’ which shot Stiller to superstardom. Middling reviews and box office for ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ might make this collaboration their last.
A loose, predictably raunched-up redo of Elaine May’s Oscar-nominated 1972 ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ with Charles Grodin and a sharp script by Neil Simon, this disappointing take had been floating around Hollywood for years with a number of scripts circulating and it took the Farrelly brothers and Ben Stiller to finally get the ball rolling.
Expected to be a box office smash this past Fall, the film was met with mostly indifference; surprising given that Stiller was coming off the juggernaut ‘Night at the Museum’ and that the film was marketed as a successor, in spirit at least, to ‘There’s Something About Mary’.
A rare misfire for Stiller, the Farrelly brothers don’t quite have the confident hand this time out. Feeling rushed and disjointed and unsuccessfully trying to walk that fine line between smart and subversive like the original 72’ flick and zany and outrageous like what their known for, ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ ends up having somewhat of an identity crisis. To be sure, there are some good laughs and the film plays amiably enough for the most part but it seems like the creative well ran a little dry this time out – this is no ‘Kingpin’.
Stiller plays 40-year old Eddie Cantrow, a commitment-phobic owner of a San Francisco sporting goods store, who has a Seinfeldian knack for finding the most menial issues with all the women he dates. His horny old pop (real-life dad Jerry Stiller – providing a lot of laughs) may have had something to do with Cantrow’s condition as he always inquiring if Eddie has crushed any p*%#&y lately.
Eddie’s lucky he’s not more screwed up than he is with a randy, albeit hilarious, dad like that. This all changes though when Eddie runs into the gorgeous blonde Lila (Malin Ackerman), a seemingly perfect Cameron Diaz ringer with a wide open smile.
Thinking this could be the one, his pop and henpecked, goofball pal Mac (Rob Corddry) talk him into marrying Lila despite him only knowing her for a month and a half. This leads to a road trip honeymoon to Mexico where sweet and innocent Lila transforms into an insufferable, high-pitched sexual deviant – with a deviated septum no less.
Regret slowly sets in but he opportunely meets a good ‘ol Southern gal Miranda, a brunette vacationing there with her family (a ‘fresh’ take on the original that has Cantrow marry the brunette and chase the shiksa blonde).
The plot veers off onto both expected and unexpected paths as Cantrow juggles his shizo wife and Miranda – whose family and she doesn’t know Cantrow is married. If more time was taken with the script, this could’ve become an absurdist post-modern take on the screwball romance – a ‘Holiday’ or ‘It Happened One Night’ for the Farrelly generation.
And they do close in every so often; most notably with Eddie’s repeated attempts to cross the U.S./Mexico border with a group of illegal’s that he becomes pals with and his sporadic communications with pop.
Too often though, the flick resorts to the belabored bodily-humor that the Farrelly’s had success with in the past but it doesn’t quite work here. In what I assume was supposed to be the money shot and culmination of various subplots, the scene where Lila gets all pissy with Cantrow due to a jellyfish, I was ready to cut my losses.
Ultimately, the film reeks of a comedic desperation – an anything for a laugh mentality that’s undeniably more miss than hit.
‘The Heartbreak Kid’ is presented with a 1080p/AVC MPEG4 transfer in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. A great HD transfer that’s befitting a new release, this bright, detailed flick is one of the better HD demo’s for a comedy released on HD.
The tropical settings look radiant and colors almost pop. If the flick is a disappointment, the transfer certainly isn’t. A complimentary Dolby TrueHD track rounds out the impressive A/V package.
Decent Special Features start off with an audio commentary from the Farrelly brothers. Always engaging commentary hosts, they offer up some jokes and anecdotes at a steady rate. Four featurettes include a short making-of, a Stiller father-son interview and cast/crew fun with a egg toss and a Halloween party. Deleted Scenes, a gag reel and a trailer finish off the extras. All special features except Deleted Scenes are presented in HD.
There are some steady laughs throughout but I imagine most will chalk this one up as a disappointment when compared to ‘There’s Something About Mary’ (or my fav Farrelly flick by far ‘Kingpin’). Probably worth a rental for most, the technical aspects of the HD-DVD get this hit-or-miss affair a slight recommend from me.
The Heartbreak Kid [HD DVD] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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