The Heartbreak Kid

Review by Kris Ashton

Doubled-up-in-your-seat-with-aching-abs funny… The Farrelly Brothers are back!

During the mid-to-late ’90s, the Farrelly brothers (Bobby and Peter), set the comedy benchmark with Dumb & Dumber and There’s Something About Mary – films that threw political correctness out the window and combined gross-out humour with scripts sharp enough to cut hessian.

Their projects during the 21st century have never quite matched up to these earlier classics. Me, Myself and Irene, Shallow Hal, Stuck on You and The Ringer (which they produced) all had their moments, but they didn’t provide the complete comedy experience of their earlier works.

That dry spell has come to an end with The Heartbreak Kid. The premise is nothing new – Ben Stiller plays Eddie Cantrow, a 40-year-old man who has avoided the marriage bullet by constantly picking faults with his girlfriends. When he attends an ex’s wedding and finds himself the only single man at the reception, he begins to wonder if his father Doc (Jerry Stiller) and his friend Mac (Rob Corddry) (who have been harassing him to get married) aren’t right after all.

As if by fate, Eddie is walking along the street when he sees a man on a bicycle snatch a leggy blonde’s handbag. He tries and fails to stop the robber, but he and the girl Lila (Malin Akerman) strike up a conversation and start dating. Through more encouragement from his dad and Mac, Eddie pops the question.

But when Eddie and Lila are on their honeymoon at a resort in Mexico, things begin to go awry. Lila’s juvenile and often annoying eccentricities become apparent. Worse still, Eddie meets an attractive brunette, Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), and feels a connection with her that he has never felt with any other woman. As you can imagine, the holiday and its events become increasingly farcical.

The first half an hour of The Heartbreak Kid is doubled-up-in-your-seat-with-aching-abs funny. Eddie is ideally suited to Stiller’s brand of wry comedic delivery and Akerman is reminiscent of Cameron Diaz in There’s Something About Mary. Jerry Stiller was also the perfect pick as Doc, a man who has a vulgar turn of phrase for every occasion.

As always, the Farrellys somehow manage to shock without crossing the line into offensiveness (although offensiveness is sometimes a matter of opinion, and if you don’t like aggressive coarse language and sadistic sex, you should probably watch something else). While the jokes taper off a little as the film progresses, it is of little consequence because the storyline is sound. Not only is it well-paced, it has what so many other recent comedies have lacked: a proper ending.

Make no mistake people, The Farrelly Brothers are back!

4.5 out of 5

The Heartbreak Kid
Australian release: 22nd November, 2007
Cast: Ben Stiller, Michelle Monaghan, Jerry Stiller, Malin Akerman
Director: Bobby & Peter Farrelly
Website: Click here.

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