The Heartbreak Kid, yeah, my heart was a little broken. OK fine, maybe not so drastic but I was disappointed with this comedy. With names like Neil Simon, the Farrelly Brothers, and Ben Stiller floating around you would think total quality. Not in my book. Don’t get me wrong, I laughed and laughed hard at times but overall this flick was too cookie-cutter, too cliché, and too predictable. The script was far from stimulating and there was a lack of freshness in the storyline. It came across as a mass-produced, off the assembly line movie. There are similarities between this picture and Ben Stiller’s Along Came Polly but let me tell you, Along Came Polly was much better. It was more captivating, funnier, and had a much better cast than Heartbreak. Again, this movie wasn’t necessarily bad, I was just expecting it to be better.

Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller) is the next 40-year-old-virgin except he’s not a virgin. He is a virgin to marriage though and not by choice. It’s that he’s had terrible luck with his love life. It’s so bad that he goes to a wedding and sees that all his friends are married and the only singles table at the reception is full of kids. By chance he meets Lila (Malin Akerman) and begins dating her. She’s interesting, affectionate, and very attractive. They seem to get along just great. After receiving all kinds of pressure from his best friend and his father, and realizing that his biological clock is ticking, he jumps into marrying Lila only after a few weeks of dating. On a side note, one of the nicer aspects of this movie is the fact that Eddie’s father is played by Ben’s father Jerry Stiller. A father and son playing a father and son in a movie is not seen too often. It was a nice touch. But poor Eddie gets to see Lila’s true colors on their honeymoon and gets disillusioned with the whole of idea of being married to her. The icing on the cake is that while on their honeymoon, Eddie meets Miranda (Michelle Monaghan) who seems to be Ms. Right. What to do, what to do?

So as you could probably tell, this story does have potential but the delivery was weak. There was room for a lot more conflict for Eddie in his juggling of Lila and Miranda. The scenarios were laid out too conveniently. The characters were a bit stale and superficial. The only characters that really had any depth at all were Eddie and Miranda. They were also two of the better performances by Ben and Michelle. It was a nice surprise to see Michelle in this role having seen her last in MI:3. Big change of pace there. Malin wasn’t bad either, especially after turning into the psycho, weirdo wife. Carlos Mencia as Uncle Tito, an employee at the Mexican resort where the honeymoon takes place, was a refreshing touch to the film. These somewhat decent performances along with the comical moments are the only things that keep you engaged. Well, the visuals helped too. From the streets of San Fran, to the beautiful beachfront resort in Mexico, and even Eddie’s sports shop were pleasing to the eyes.

Directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly are two of the biggest names in comedy. They have an incredible track record but hey, everyone is entitled to an off day, or off picture in this case. Not that it was that bad, but they have definitely done better. I’m sure they’ll jump back into their standard form.
 

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