Heartbreakers (2001)
DIRECTOR: David Mirkin
CAST: Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Gene Hackman, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee
REVIEW:
Despite a little star power in its cast, Heartbreakers doesn’t really rise above television sitcom level, but it’s an entertaining enough diversion that serves up enough laughs to be enjoyable, at least until its overlong runtime and dragged-out third act starts to wear out its modest welcome.
The mother-daughter con artist team of Max Conners (Sigourney Weaver) and her daughter Page (Jennifer Love Hewitt) have a well-honed routine. Max lures wealthy men to the altar, then Page lures them into temptation (with Max conveniently walking in at an inopportune moment) and a hefty divorce settlement. But after their latest successful con on New Jersey car chopper Dean (Ray Liotta), Page puts her foot down, impatient to strike out on her own and prove she can do it without Mom holding her hand. Though skeptical, Max grudgingly agrees under condition that they pull off one last major job together to set Page up with enough money for her new independence. To this end, they strike out for sunny, money-laden Palm Beach, and set their sights on ultra-wealthy and ultra-decrepit tobacco tycoon William Tensy (Gene Hackman), who looks about to keel over at any minute. But before they can seal the deal, two complications arise: Page breaks one of the cardinal rules of conning by catching feelings for local bartender Jack (Jason Lee), and Max’s hoodwinked ex-husband Dean tracks them down.
Heartbreakers features a potentially “dark comedy” premise including a somewhat twisted mother-daughter relationship and lead characters who could be viewed as amoral and unsympathetic, but like most PG-13 comedies that still want to be crowd-pleasing, it soft peddles the issues lurking around the edges of the frame. No, Max is not literally prostituting her daughter out to her husbands (at least not entirely); she conveniently walks in so perfectly-timed as to catch them in an obviously compromising position but before anything is really “actually” happening. The movie wants us to view Max and Page’s criminal escapades as a lighthearted lark and to root for the mother-daughter duo and not really dwell on some of the vaguely creepy implications.
Heartbreakers’ comedy is uneven but served up regularly enough that things don’t get too stale. There are some inspired bits, like Sigourney Weaver’s Max getting out of an awkward situation with an impromptu rendition of “Back In The U.S.S.R.” (how she ends up in this scenario is a long story), but also some more lazy sophomoric sexual humor (which the PG-13 rating keeps the movie playing softball with). The biggest issue is the runtime, which at just north of two hours begins to wear out its modest charms, especially after Gene Hackman’s Tensy finally takes his last wheezing gasp, even though Hackman’s departure is somewhat compensated for by the manic Ray Liotta popping back up to liven things up a little. The final con which comprises the third act not only has the feel of the movie dragging itself out with an overlong denouement, but also crosses the line into a little too mean-spirited to be glossed over so easily, partly because of the rather cruel situation Max is shoving her daughter into playing along with, partly because Jason Lee’s haplessly earnest Jack is too much an innocent victim. Of course, since Heartbreakers wants to have its cake and eat it too, everyone basically ends up coming out okay.
Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt keep the light frothy proceedings afloat by chewing into their roles with zeal, stalking around in high heels and giant hats and an assortment of outfits (it’s also worth noting, in an industry which tends to set actresses out to pasture once they pass out of youth, 52-year-old Sigourney Weaver has been cast as a seductress, though unsurprisingly she’s dressed in a more stately wardrobe than the tight low-cut dresses accorded to the curvaceous Hewitt). Weaver, getting to loosen up and relax from doing battle with bloodthirsty aliens and remind us of her underappreciated flair for comedy, spends half her screentime in the guise of Russian immigrant “Olga Yevanova”, complete with a cartoonishly thick accent straight out of Rocky & Bullwinkle. The statuesque Weaver and petite Hewitt might not have much family resemblance, but the elder vet and young starlet have enough chemistry for us to buy them as a mother-daughter con artist team. Gene Hackman (who to put it lightly is not tasked with one of the great challenging roles of his career here) gamely yuks it up as the decrepit Tensy, but Tensy is a one-joke pony who gets some laughs—mostly by virtue of Hackman getting down on one knee or falling out of chairs and hacking up a storm every five minutes—but eventually wears a little thin. Jason Lee, whose profane sarcasm is given free rein in Kevin Smith’s films, is watered down by the PG-13 rating and by being relegated to the rather dull role of the “straight man”/”nice guy” love interest. More panache is provided by Ray Liotta, who dives right in gleefully parodying his own gangster image, although his character is put through some whiplashy script-dictated contortions by the end (he eventually delivers an impassioned monologue that feels like an abrupt about-face). There are smaller roles for the likes of Anne Bancroft, Nora Dunn, Jeffrey Jones, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, and Julio Oscar Mechoso, and cameos by Michael Hitchcock, Kevin Nealon, Ricky Jay, and Carrie Fisher.
How much enjoyment you derive from Heartbreakers probably depends on how demanding your expectations are about comedies, and how generous of a mood you’re in. It contains enough amusing moments to be an enjoyable enough diversion, but an overlong runtime starts to wear out its modest pleasures before it drags itself across the finish line.
* * 1/2