As a 90s kid in Australia, I had a bit of confusion around The Heartbreak Kid, since that was also the title of a hit Australian teen drama, starring Alex Dimitridaias and Claudia Karvan, which eventually led to the TV show Heartbreak High. Completely unrelated, The Heartbreak Kid (1972) was based on a short story by Bruce Jay Friedman, scripted by Neil Simon and directed by Elaine May. Now having seen the original recently, the Ben Stiller/Faralley Brothers remake which I saw upon release feels even more egregious with its preference for gross-out gags, and becoming even more unlikeable than the original with its utter nastiness.
I sometimes find Neil Simon, even though he is a funny writer, someone who suffers from his theatre and sketch origins with rat-tat-tat setup and punchline dialogue, the sitcom blahs. It’s a testament to Elaine May’s talent as a director that she approaches the material from a grounded, character-based approach, starting off slowly and not hitting the audience right away with the gags. Rather comedy grows from the growing desperation and selfishness of Charles Grodin’s character, his plain, gormless face, underwritten by growing resentment towards his new bride (the hilarious, amazing Jeannie Berlin) and his obsessive attraction to a woman (Cybil Shepard, who has never been more charming, I think) he meets on his honeymoon in Miami Beach.
The Heartbreak Kid has always held a high reputation as a 1970s comedy, one based around an unlikeable character expertly played by Grodin. There are several all-timer hilarious scenes (when Grodin lays his cards on the table to Shepard’s father played by Eddie Albert; the pecan pie restaurant scene, etc) that build in reaction to the growing absurdity, and accentuated by the camerawork and editing.
Charles Grodin, younger than I’ve seen him in something (outside from the doctor in Rosemary’s Baby) plays the character with an open face, at once gormlessly pleasing, but then obsessively manic, lying with ease to his new bride and throwing himself full blown into chasing his new love. While it’s a character that isn’t precisely the Grodin persona of later decades (Beethoven, Letterman talk show appearances), the quiet fury underneath a placid demeanour, peeved and aggrieved by any slight. It’s there though, but bubbling away underneath, blowing his life up to obtain an impossible ideal. Throughout are themes around Jewish identity and WASP culture, and self-involved masculinity and self-destructive desire, finding a closing sequence with a perfect ending, the type that unexpectedly finishes and then hits you with how perfect that was as the closing credits roll.
Also, Midnight Run is a favourite movie I watched repeatedly my whole life, and there’s a scene in that where Grodin pretends to be an FBI agent and deadpan improvs with the scene extras. So it was quite a revelation to witness an earlier incarnation of that bit when Grodin pretends to be a narc with Shepard’s college friends.
Obtained a copy from the Rarefilmm website. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 