Review of The Heartbreak Kid (1972) by Pierluigi P — 30 Jul 2012

Elaine May's comedy The Heartbreak Kid, is the story about the newly weds, Lenny (Charles Grodin) and Lila (Jeannie Berlin) who's off to their honeymoon to Miami. On the trip, Lenny seems to have second thoughts about the whole marriage, specially after their first night in bed together. When they finally arrives Miami, and Lenny can finally rest in the sun, a young tall blond goddess, named Kelly (Cybill Shepherd) suddenly appears, and says "excuse me, you're in my spot". And from that moment Lenny is madly in love with this college girl, with a rich and overprotective father (Eddie Albert). So this mean's Lenny is up against two problems. The first one is to gently get rid of his wife, and convince Kelly's father that he's good enough for his daughter.

What do I think about this comedy? Well I will not call it a classic, because I don't find it very special, or very funny for that matter. It's an easy going comedy, that doesn't give our main character to many challenges, it all appears to easily for him. And the ending is certainly not satisfying. And I also find Jeannie Berlin to be over the top annoying. But what I really liked about this movie was Eddie Albert's performance as Kelly's father. A really strong performance with authority and repentance. A real baddass performance. Plus the movie also features a really sexy Cybill Shepherd. So I guess I give it a marginal thumbs up.