☆ ☆ ☆ ½
The
Heartbreak Kid (1972) – E. May
Charles Grodin plays a character to which
an intensely ambivalent reaction is the only correct response. On the one hand, he’s funny (increasingly so,
as the movie progresses). On the other
hand, he’s ready to end his marriage after 5 days because he meets Cybill
Shepherd and she seems better. Of
course, Jeannie Berlin (the director Elaine May’s daughter) does do a great
(funny) “annoying” and you can see Grodin’s pall as he really gets to know his
bride. But he’s a lying cad; Berlin
doesn’t deserve to be dumped (and we feel sympathy for her). So, we’re almost expecting Grodin to get his
comeuppance and Eddie Albert (as Shepherd’s dad) very nearly offers it (“I’m a
rich brick wall”). But somehow Grodin
defies the odds, following Shepherd back to Minneapolis (with several scenes
shot on Northrop Mall at the U of M – it looks the same!). And once he succeeds, surprisingly, we’re
left with an exquisite moment (scored with “Close to You”, a repeated motif)
where we aren’t quite sure if Grodin is happy or not. Neil Simon wrote the screenplay from a story
by Bruce Jay Friedman. Funny and “real-seeming”
but so very wrong.
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