Heartbreakers

Heartbreakers has always been one of my low key movie favorites. It's funny, and the acting and plot are actually pretty good. Hewitt and Weaver play mother and daughter so well and really compliment each other. The storyline is well developed and just the right amount of ridiculous. It's just a good mindlessly entertaining movie.

This screwball comedy brings together some great dramatic actors in unaccustomed comedic roles. The results are mixed (but mostly good), with some terrific slapstick and some pure drivel. Maxine (Sigourney Weaver) and Paige (Jennifer Love Hewitt) are two very slick con artists who find rich patsies and marry them, only to divorce them for big settlements after enticing them into indiscretions. When they get nabbed by the IRS for not paying their taxes, they must score one more time to climb out of their financial mess. The target is chain smoking billionaire William B. Tensy (Gene Hackman) who is dying before our eyes of lung disease. The only question is whether Maxine can get him to propose before he keels over. Meanwhile, Paige is running her own scam on Jack (Jason Lee) who owns a bar resting on prime real estate worth $3 Million.

It is mostly pratfall humor, with lots of sight gags and general nuttiness, which is often uproariously funny. The whole idea that the diminutive Paige could have been spawned from the Amazonian Maxine is implied comedy at its finest, leading us to conclude that Paige's father could only have been a midget.

Gene Hackman completely steals the show as the wheezy billionaire. Hackman, who is one of our national treasures as a dramatic actor, shows magnificent range, and he turns out to be the best comedian of the bunch. Sigourney Weaver is also in rare form brandishing some bodacious outfits and undergarments. She is especially funny as Olga, trotting out impressive broken English and even doing some vocals accompanied by a Russian balalaika band. Ray Liotta gives a lighthearted and funny performance as a chop shop owner who can't get over his love for Maxine, even though he knows she scammed him. Jason Lee's understated nice guy portrayal serves as the perfect counterpart to Jennifer Love Hewitt's bratty vamp. The perennially cute Hewitt still can't seem to transition into grownup roles. No matter how sexy they make her up (and they do quite a good job with her considerable attributes), her pubescent mannerisms and delivery still make her come off as a teenage harpy. In her defense, this is what the role required, but it doesn't do much to move her out of her character rut.

Overall, there is a lot of good fun here that is often dissipated by puerile absurdity. Still, there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, mostly delivered by Weaver and Hackman, that make this a better than average comedy. I rated it 7/10. Fans who like seeing Sigourney and Jennifer in sexy outfits will not be disappointed.

Much to my surprise, this movie is actually very funny and entertaining! It's about a mother/daughter con team of Max and Page (played by Sigourney Weaver of `Aliens' and Jennifer Love Hewitt of `Can't Hardly Wait') who prey upon wealthy men with the mom as bait and the daughter as cheating material to end the marriage in a fraudulent divorce. Therefore, they get half of everything he owns, which tides them over until the next poor sucker is tracked down. And these are supposed to be the good guys (or girls)? Just like `Hannibal', you end up rooting for the main characters, regardless of their motives. While this seems to work fine for them on a rich chop shop owner named Dean (Ray Liotta of `Goodfellas') and tobacco tycoon William Tensy (Gene Hackman of `Enemy of the State'), they run into a unexpected problem when Page falls for a bar owner named Jack (Jason Lee of `Chasing Amy') and actually grows a conscience on their supposed `last con'. Meanwhile, Dean tracks the two down and uncovers their scam. Due to the hilarious performances by Liotta and Hackman, and the amazing turn for Hewitt (from the dreadful `Party of Five'), this movie stayed on track and kept the laughs rolling. While this could've fizzled in so many spots, it managed to turn itself into one of the most surprisingly enjoyable comedies in a while, possibly due to director David Mirkin's (Romy and Michele's High School Reunion') fast-paced, yet lighthearted touch.

Stories this luscious and sumptuous, well directed and seamlessly edited, with characters faultlessly portrayed by an outstanding cast, come along rarely, and this is one of the best. It is so good that there are not superlatives enough to do it credit. The basic setup is that the principal characters, a mother, tantalizingly portrayed by Weaver, and her daughter, multifacetedly portrayed by Hewett, are "artistes confidence" to the core of their superficial existences. They cannot so much as have "lunch" without practicing their arts of the scam, but mainly they work the old "betrothal" game. Mom gets her rich mark to the alter, then even before the marriage can be consummated, the daughter, pretending to be unrelated, exploits the man's foolish libido, resulting in a substantial settlement after mom catches them apparently "in flagrante." But then things start going haywire when the daughter decides to strike out on her own, because the guy she fixes on as a mark is not like other guys at all. How he is not, and how her character develops as a result, makes for two hours of outstanding comedy and drama.

After laughing thru most of this movie, it just really reminded me of another "CON artist" movie that made me laugh quite a bit. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Although possibly not as great a comedy as that movie, this flick has many good laughs. And for the complaints of the happy ending, this movie is really a romantic comedy.

Sigourney Weaver is great, and is another female Hollywood lead that proves that older women can be incredibly sexy.

Jennifer Love Hewitt does a convincing job of playing daughter and has good chemistry from Weaver.

Honestly, the people who don't enjoy this movie, are trying to be some sort of online "Siskel and Ebert." We aren't grading a drama or something here, it is a comedy. It is supposed to make you laugh, and in this respect for me, it succeeds.

I was definately laughing thru most of the movie. What more could you want. It is definately worth a rental. Don't let the few bad comments scare you from getting a few good chuckles from this movie.