Platicsco
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
PiraBit
if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
Kamila Bell
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
John Brooks
There are many things this film does really well.First of all, the acting is superb throughout. Grodin is brilliant as ever in a very demanding, heavy acting responsibility - had he been average at it, the film easily loses heaps of its ability. Jeannie Berlin (the wife) does really well, as does Eddie Albert (the father) and for a 22 year old beaut youngster Cybill Shepherd is solid also.Next: this isn't a generic superficial comedy. It's got that peculiar element about it. The humor isn't easy over-the-counter drivel, it's in fact uneasy, almost awkward and difficult to digest. It's about the little annoying details with people, invading personal space, being pathetic without noticing it...in a very real way, all of those things !Finally, the film holds up very nicely in its one hour forty-five minute frame, with not one moment too many or too few, has a well thought out structure to it that isn't obvious at first, and there's this sort of itchy, awkward anti-morality morality at the end of it that is just as weirdly charming and anti-heroic as its main character.8/10.
tavm
For years, all I knew of this movie was who was involved in it: director Elaine May, screenwriter Neil Simon, author Bruce Jay Friedman (I was previously familiar with two of his '80s comedies I remember enjoying-Stir Crazy and Splash) and stars Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd, and Eddie Albert. Oh, and also another player-Jeannie Berlin-is Ms. May's daughter. I also knew of the premise-Grodin marries Ms. Berlin, finds out she's not very appealing, dumps her after meeting Ms. Shepherd during their honeymoon, tries to get Ms. Shepherd's father-played by Albert-to approve of him for her and then...Well, I'll just say that this was both funny and a little painful to watch but it was mostly quite an enjoyable one to finally see for myself just how well put this was. So on that note, I highly recommend The Heartbreak Kid. Oh, and I just remembered that Audra Lindley-years before playing Helen Roper in "Three's Company"-is in this, too! Also, Doris Roberts-a couple of decades before her Emmy-wining role in "Everybody Loves Raymond"-plays Grodin's mother during the first-wedding sequence.
ShadeGrenade
Charles Grodin strangely never seems to have attained stardom despite having given a number of excellent performances, such as the one in this film. 'The Heartbreak Kid' ( 1972 ) casts him as 'Lenny Cantrow', an ex-army man who falls for and marries over-affectionate Jewish girl Lila ( Jeannie Berlin ). On their Miami honeymoon, she comes to irritate him. Asking him whether he loves her at every opportunity, and making a a pig of herself by eating egg salad in a restaurant.When she gets a bad case of sunburn, he leaves her in their room while he goes to the beach alone. Here he meets beautiful college student 'Kelly Corcoran' ( Cybill Shepherd ). They get friendly, and he gradually realises he made a big mistake marrying Lila. After a quickie divorce, he goes off in search of Kelly. But there is an obstacle in his way - her cantankerous ( and rich ) father Dwayne ( Edward Albert )...This is a wonderfully witty comedy, superbly directed by Elaine May ( also responsible for the 1971 Walter Matthau film - in which she also acted - 'A New Leaf' ). The performances are uniformly excellent, particularly Grodin and Berlin ( okay, so she's May's daughter, but so what? Why has she not had as good an acting role as this since? ), and Albert is suitably fearsome as Kelly''s dad ( if this had been made thirty years before the role probably would have been played by Spencer Tracy ). He gets most of the best lines. On hearing Lenny's pretentious comments about dinner, for instance, he remarks: "No deceit in the cauliflower? Where do you get ideas like that?". It should come as no surprise that this is the work of the great Neil Simon. He has sometimes come a cropper writing directly for the big screen ( 'The Cheap Detective', for instance ), but his work here is top-notch. Shepherd looks good enough to eat as 'Kelly'. The ambiguous ending suggests that Lenny is more interested in the chase than in the ( for wont of a better word ) kill. Perhaps he and Kelly broke up after only a few months of married life, and he went after some other girl.Funniest moment - Lenny and Lila are in a restaurant. He is trying in a roundabout way to tell Lila that he wants out of the marriage. She misunderstands, and thinks he is dying!
kenjha
While on honeymoon with his nice Jewish bride, an indecisive young man meets the woman of his dreams. May elicits good performances and keeps it entertaining but the script is not one of Simon's best. Grodin is terrific as the schmuck who sees an opportunity to go for the gold in the form of WASP beauty Shepherd. Berlin (daughter of May) steals the film as the jilted wife, a loving if not lovely woman that one wants to give a reassuring hug to. The scene where Grodin dumps her is indeed heartbreaking. Albert is funny as Shepherd's stern father, who eventually tries to buy off Grodin. This film has parallels to "The Graduate," although it is nowhere as good as that classic.
