Director
The Farrelly Brothers
Cast
Ben Stiller………Eddie Cantrow
Michelle Monaghan………Miranda
Malin Akerman………Lila
Jerry Stiller………Doc
Carlos Mencia………Uncle Tito
Rob Corddry………Mac
DVD Release Date: December 26, 2007
Rating: R
Running Time: 115 Minutes
The Movie
Eddie Cantrow is forty years old and runs his own sporting goods store in San Francisco. He isn’t married but seems to be happy with his life. On the outside that is. After attending his ex-fiancé’s wedding; he realizes that he is only getting older and the time to meet that someone special is getting smaller. It’s only a matter of time before he’s his like his father who is in his late seventies and hoping to get any a piece of any female that walks past him on the street.
On the way home from the wedding, Eddie is thinking about his life and stumbles upon a pretty young woman getting mugged. Try as he might, he just can’t wrestle her purse away from him and ends up getting sprayed in the eyes with some “very stinging perfume.” His act of chivalry is not for naught though as the beautiful Lila happens upon his store one day soon after supposedly to purchase a fleece, but she has ulterior motives. One thing leads to another and three weeks later they are all over each other every single moment of everyday. Finally Eddie seems to have met someone he can relate to and really enjoys being with.
Into all lives though a little trouble must fall when Lila’s job threatens to send her to Holland for two years. Eddie sees the loophole to keep his “soulmate” around, pops the question, and they are soon off for three weeks in Cabo as newlyweds. The time of their lives is just around the corner until Lila’s little faults come about. They aren’t big or anything. Just things like a deviated septum from a former cocaine addiction, an extremely overactive and scary appetite for sex, loud snoring, singing loudly to every song on the radio, no sense of humor, no income, personal debt, they have nothing in common, and not to mention that she’s a raving loon. But those things can be looked past right?
Eddie seems to think so and gives it a shot. They are of course newlyweds that have only known each other for about a month and will take some time to adjust to their new lives together. That is until he meets Miranda. Miranda is a beautiful brunette on vacation with her family from Oxford, Mississippi. There she lives and coaches the women’s lacrosse team for Ole Miss. She and Eddie have everything imaginable to talk about and enjoy each other’s company more then they could possibly imagine. The stars have aligned and these two people from opposite parts of the United States have met under the most perfect circumstances in a remote setting. Except for the one little thing Eddie forgot to tell Miranda. That he’s married.
For as many of Ben Stiller’s films as I’ve enjoyed, there was bound to be one that just made me say “blah” and this is it. It’s not that it isn’t funny because it has its moments. And in a pleasant surprise, Stiller wasn’t over the top and doing some bouncing off the wall physical comedy, but his last few films have seemed to head in that direction as he’s gotten older. The film just really drags at times and gets extraordinarily boring. For instance it took me two sittings to actually get through it. As I sat down the first time, the first twenty minutes went by and off it went. I just couldn’t bear to sit through it anymore at the time. After putting it in the second time, it got funnier and a little more bearable but still not too good.
Stiller is excellent in his role as Eddie and Michelle Monaghan is great in her role as Miranda. The big problems here are Malin Akerman (Lila) and Carlos Mencia (Uncle Tito). First let me say that I know Mencia isn’t in the film much, but he’s not funny. His humor is old and even his performance is listless and unmotivated. At first glance, I knew I had seen Akerman somewhere and then it hit me, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. There’s a damn fine reason she was only in that film for about five minutes and showed off the goods. She is not a good actress and even though she gets you to hate her character of Lila as is intended; she really makes you hate her. After a while I was honestly hoping she was somehow no longer in the film.
The Heartbreak Kid has its moments and there were even a few times when I laughed out loud. It just doesn’t have the great cast and extreme humor of Meet The Parents/Fockers. Nor does it have the great humor and feel good atmosphere that Night At The Museum possesses. This film comes and goes and actually reminds me a lot of Along Came Polly with the whole relationship gone wrong kind of idea. Stiller needs to stick to the types of films that are more him and keep any sort of on-screen relationships as the third or maybe even the fourth storyline in them.
The Video
The film is shown in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and looks really good. Most of the film takes place outside and in the bright sun of Cabo San Lucas so you are going to witness a bunch of bright colors which look extraordinarily sharp and clear.
The Audio
The film is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and while it sound good for the most part; the music was a bit overbearing at times. All dialogue can be heard clearly and at a good level, but sometimes that music just got to me.
Special Features
Audio Commentary – The Farrelly Brothers sit down together to discuss the first film they have directed together in a couple years (Fever Pitch). They talk about how much fun it was working with the cast especially the Stillers, how hard it was to actually put the script together, and the good times the cast had together. They share some fun stories and it makes for a rather enjoyable track.
The Farrelly Bros. In The French Tradition – This is essentially a sixteen minute feature on the history of the Farrellys and their journey to where they are in life today. It is quite interesting with the best part being how they created the world’s first round beach towel.
Ben & Jerry – Five minutes about how it would be to work with you dad or your son everyday. Ben and Jerry Stiller discuss what it’s like to be on the set together and how similar acting in a film is to their regular lives. Nothing much here.
Heartbreak Halloween – The Farrelly Brothers let the cast have a good time for Halloween as they had a big party and everyone got dressed up in different costumes to celebrate the holiday. This feature runs a little over three minutes and didn’t do much for me.
The Egg Toss – Ever wonder what an eight-minute documentary about the egg toss would be like? Well here you go. The crew needed to bond in some way so the Farrellys got everyone together and did egg toss competitions for money everyday.
Gag Reel – About four minutes worth of stuff that really isn’t all that funny.
Deleted Scenes – There are six short deleted scenes, most of which do nothing for the film if left in or out. But one in particular stands out to me and it’s of Miranda’s ex-boyfriend parachuting into Cabo and proposing to her. I’m not quite sure how it would have fit into the film whatsoever without taking out or changing a lot more.
Trailers – Drillbit Taylor, Into The Wild, Stardust, Hot Rod, and Mind Of Mencia: Season 3 Uncensored
The Inside Pulse
Both the Farrellys and Ben Stiller have done better films before including with each other so seeing The Heartbreak Kid just makes me wonder what happened. Lackluster wouldn’t be an appropriate word to use when describing it because it lived up to the qualifications you’d come to expect from them, but only for about half of the film’s duration. The rest of it was just kind of there and uninspiring. The special features barely provide any extra entertainment and just don’t make this a DVD that is a must buy compared to Stuck On You, The Royal Tenenbaums, or There’s Something About Mary. It’s good for a rental some night if you can stand Malin Akerman’s character because you’ll have to come to grips with the fact that she isn’t going to go away for ninety percent of the film. I do give her credit for one scene though in which she admits something that you normally wouldn’t hear a woman fess up to. Trust me; you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it.
