The Heartbreak Kid

Not the funniest comedy ever made, but it is an interesting watch and Lenny is a really great comic character.

Grodin plays a great insufferable prick. I feel like Vincent Kartheiser took some of this for his role as Pete in Mad Men.

This under-appreciated comedy may be too painfully funny for many viewers. Charles Grodin is superb, but Jeannie Berlin and Eddie Albert are also great, and Cybill Shepherd is also good in her role. The reason it has not been released on Blu-ray, apparently, is that when Palomar Pictures was wound up, ownership rights were left in the hands of pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers (which after a 1989 merger became Bristol-Myers-Squibb), who have sat on them ever since. Goddamn Big Pharma.

Unapologetically uncomfortable and way ahead of its time, it's the perfect antidote to the bland and insincere Hollywood romcom template. Would make for a great double feature with Albert Brooks' brilliant and equally unsettling "Modern Romance."

I miss Charles Grodin so goddamn much...

However much Alex Ross Perry wants to namedrop Maurice Pialat, it still feels like this film essentially foreshadows 90% of both The Color Wheel and Listen Up Philip (also as for the whole deconstructing Woody Allen thing, this already anticipated that when Allen was still making wacky comedies, not to mention it also works as a massive, horrible/beautiful refutation of The Graduate). Plus the theme song is amazing.

Elaine May's filmmaking is grounded in the New Hollywood paradigm, and so while The Heartbreak Kid is a comedy, it isn't "screwball". Much of it plays like an only subtly comedic drama of psychological realism. The underlying ridiculousness of Leonard is striking, but only now and then is there a hard enough nudge to make you laugh. It's quite a seamless combination of comedy and serious drama, and though it grows funnier as it progresses, the humor is never overstated.

Inconsistently funny, but (not surprisingly) far more unpredictable & non-test-group-friendly than its aughts remake. 1 of the most surprising elements is how un-PC the film seems now as it tries 2 excuse Grodin's behavior by unfairly pitting his Jewish wife (repeatedly made 2 look unattractive) against Shepherd's (once again) unobtainable shiksa. Still, only in the 70's would a film follow such a delusional & flawed protagonist so far in 2 what could easily be considered an undeserving end.

The movie is like an episode of Seinfeld needlessly drawn out to feature length. I wanted out immediately, and I wasn't even in the marriage. As tedious as the whole thing is, I will say that Charles Gordon was perfectly cast. He had some fantastic lines. I also quite enjoyed Cybill Shepherd and Eddie Albert in their respective roles. So everything just sort of evens out to being kinda meh. Ultimately though I'd give it a chance if you're in the mood for some prime Grodin or a fan of Elaine May.

A great little comedy, paced out well to illicit big laughs. The dynamics between each of these characters is wild and this film makes it work in its own off-kilter worldview. The plot moves along to its own logic and magically makes sense, feeling so satisfying, even though we're watching a total asshole do all the wrong things (and it's a lot of fun to do so).

It has a bunch of amusing moments, but the comedy relies a lot on awkwardness so in between the laughs there are also cringes. None of the characters is very likable but they're just sympathetic enough to make you care about what's going on.

Awesome. I love it when a performer goes all out playing such a unlikeable dick to the absolute hilt the way Charles Grodin does in this. Fantastic. Often, it's really damn funny too. Reminded me a lot of Albert Brooks' films.

It's no Modern Romance but it's still great

The dinner scene where Lenny reveals his situation to Kelly’s parents is a master class in acting by itself. This movie is way ahead if it’s time in using cringe comedy to great effect. Later works like The Office owe a debt to this style. Amazing performances by all, as this script doesn’t pull any punches.

What an uncomfortable film! Every single character is unlikeable and the final act is a cringe-fest.

w/ Busra

I shoud have waited like Lenny.

I don't really enjoy watching misanthropes. I guess this was a comedy, and pleasantly acted, but the main character is so shitty, and the situation so far fetched and silly, while asking you to take it seriously, it made it hard for any of the 'comedy' to land.

The more outlandish it gets the funnier it gets. Great ending.

Just awful. This was supposed to be a comedy?

midway, i was pacing the room and averting my gaze to allay the embarrassment the miami dinner conversations generated. that's the good part: conversely, the entire sequence of events leading to the ending necessarily relied on the unmitigated stupidity of every important female character in the film, with only the overprotective banking father able to see through the protagonist's bullshit. ultimately this rendered the whole malarkey preposterous and uninteresting. all discomfort, no insight.

Em honra de Neil Simon (1927 - 2018) filme #2 Assistindo esse filme fica fácil compreender porque alguns dizem que Elaine May é a diretora mais subestimada dos EUA, aqui há um "macho chato do caralho" totalmente perdido nas suas próprias considerações, mas que se torna completamente palatável na sua existência por conta da direção precisa de May. Na cena final do casamento fiquei repetindo pra mim: se esse filma terminar aqui, vai ser genial - dito e feito. DVDRip VLIS

"The PLO was bombing over there and a cruise ship had been taken hostage ...and then Elaine May was causing problems..." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2014/08/episode-26-subject-of-this-episode-is.html

One of the better scripts of the 20th century, Eddie Albert & Jeannie Berlin at the height of their power, and Charles Grodin is in the center just hurling us through his portrayal of pure opportunistic lunacy. Impressed by how well he pulled off such a P.o.S.

A sharp comedy that shows the lie of the individualist, pursue it at all costs American dream. The comedy relies heavily on awkward moments, as May simply refuses to let her characters off the hook.