Heartbreakers Review
by Tim Wick
I'll start with all the reasons you shouldn't go see this movie because
ultimately, I'm going to tell you that you should see it anyway.
The movie isn't very well directed or edited. There are several scenes
that cut out early or late and many of the cuts are jarring. Scene
transitions should be better than that. The script, while good, is not as
creative as it could be - taking a great deal of it's inspiration from
films like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Sting but missing some of
the snappiness of those films. The film, at over 2 hours takes a little
too long to tell it's story.
But this certainly isn't the first poorly made film I've ever enjoyed and
it won't be the last.
What the producers of this film did right, after all they were doing
wrong, was casting the film. Sigourney Weaver has the enviable ability to
brighten any film she is involved with. Bad movies seem good and decent
movies, like this one, manage to look even better because she's on screen.
Gene Hackman is also wonderfully funny and Ray Liotta does a good job
making fun of the gangster character he seems to have been stuck playing
in recent years. I was uncertain about Jennifer Love Hewitt, but she
turned out to have some pretty good comedy instincts and Jason Lee, who is
gifted at playing jerks (Dogma, Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Almost
Famous come to mind) actually pulls off a NICE guy pretty well.
If one is making a comedy about con artists, the trick is to make the
audience care about the con artists just a little bit. If you just keep
wishing someone would bust their butts, the movie isn't doing it's job.
Fortunately, there was much to like about the two lead characters even as
the movie took pains to point out they were far from perfect role models.
Although I'm pretty sure most people know the central plot premise, I'll
warn you about upcoming SPOILERS that could give away an early "surprise".
The film centers around two con artists played by Weaver and Hewitt. Max
(Weaver) specializes in marrying men and then barging in on them as her
daughter Paige (Hewitt) is seducing them the day after the wedding. She
specializes in sexual frustration and has a low opinion of men in general
as one of them got her pregnant and dumped her. As the film opens, she is
marrying and divorcing Ray Liotta.
But it takes time to orchestrate a marriage and divorce. Paige is getting
anxious to strike out on her own and Max has to do better than measly
$300,000 scores. Time to go for a big fish.
In the early going, we don't care much for either one of them. Max is a
woman who has plenty of money, but still steals gas and drops glass in her
food to make sure she never has to pay for dinner. Paige is bratty and
petulant, convinced she can do things on her own despite the fact that she
keeps proving to herself and others that she can't.
The con they are playing isn't a good con. They tell themselves that the
guys deserve it if they are that willing to fool around. When Jack
Withroe (Jason Lee) shows up as the owner of a little bar that could be
worth a lot of money if he sells it to Starbucks, we finally meet the good
guy who is about to get screwed by the con these two are playing.
Around the same time, Max begins to play for billionaire William Tensey
(Gene Hackman). Tensey made his money in tobacco and prattles on
endlessly about the rights of smokers. Speaking as a non-smoker, I was
just praying Max would take him for everything he was worth because he
deserved it. I think most smokers would be all for his downfall as he
gives smokers a bad name. That was, of course, the point.
Anyway, thing start to go haywire as soon as Max begins the con. One gets
the impression things have gone wrong for her in the past because she
seems to have little problem dealing with each speed bump as it appears in
her path. Of course, as the speed bumps get bigger, we can tell she's
getting a bit more flustered than usual. To make matters worse, it looks
as if her daughter is actually falling for her mark. She should, he's a
nice guy.
The complexity of the plot may be why the film ran a little long.
Remember Ray Liotta? He shows up and turns out he's a little miffed.
Through it all, Weaver has an air of dignity even as she is forced to sing
Back in the USSR with a fake Russian accent. As we watch her character
grapple with learning to treat her daughter as a woman rather than a
child, we begin to understand how much of her life is a result of the pain
created by one man. She isn't doing the con for money, she is doing it
for revenge. She's gotten revenge over and over again, but it doesn't
make her any happier. Somehow she knows this and that could by why she
keeps trying to stop Paige from going out on her own.
Hewitt does a good job making Paige into a confused young lady. She is
cocky and arrogant because of her many - ahem - assets. She has been
taught to look down on men because her mother does. When she starts
trying to con Lee, she looks at him as just another guy but he shows her
(slowly) that not all guys are creeps and cheats. Why Lee stays with her
even though she is constantly dating him and dumping him is a mystery best
left to the ages. In the end, it made for a pretty satisfying love story.
Ultimately, despite all it's flaws, the film succeeds because Weaver,
Liotta, Hackman, Lee and yes, even Hewitt, inject humanity and energy into
the film. It was worth the trip.
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