How the mighty have fallen! The Farrely Brothers once upon a time were the kings of comedy, with a string of hits under their belts and some laugh out loud movies that included Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary, they were truly unstoppable. Then something happened, they suddenly made flops, or at least disappointments. Stuck On You in my mind is where this all began, uneven comedies that while having some good moments were just so unmemorable it was unbelievable. I never saw The Ringer, I didn't agree with the subject matter hence why I didn't watch it, but I was actually really looking forward to The Heartbreak Kid. The trailer made me laugh and it looked like a return to Mary territory. I went into this movie expecting a short, light hearted comedy with some hilarious moments. I came out bored to tears, having only laughed a few times and feeling really cheated and also very disappointed. The Heartbreak Kidis unfortunately a big flop and is definitely the Brothers weakest movie to date in my mind. This wouldn't bother me if everything about the movie was unbelievably awful, but the most frustrating thing is that there are moments in this movie that are genuinely brilliant. The storyline itself is great, the characters are great, the tone is right, so where the hell did it go some damn wrong? My guess is that studio interference has a large part to play. The gross out Farrely humour just does not gel with the sweet romance story at the centre of it all. Also the movie is way too long and the script way too uneven for this to be a good movie. This may not be the worst movie of the year in my eyes but its certainly one of the most frustrating. Ben Stiller is great, Malin Akerman is superb, there are scenes and ideas that are brilliant, the ending is pitch perfect, yet everything else is just so poorly executed!
So lets start with the cast which admittedly is the most consistently decent thing in the movie. Ben Stiller is on a return to form in this movie, after a few cameos here and there and a phoned in performance in Night in the Museum he finally seems at ease. In fact this is arguably his best work in my eyes since Dodgeball, not hard when you see his recent line of work. His natural easy going charm works in this movie and makes a potentially unlikable character, and actually at times his character remains very unlikable, just a bit more tolerable. A shame then the script gives him little comedy to work with, that is until a priceless psychotic breakdown over a Mexican band, which is one of the few highlights of the movie. The true star of the movie however is Malin Akerman as the psychotic Lila. Akerman seems to have a blast as the mad, former junkie, in debt, clingy, neurotic wife from hell. However I found something very strange while watching this movie, I actually felt sorry for Lila for a lot of the film. Sure when she's having sex and beating the hell out of her husband its hard to feel sorry for her, but when Ben Stiller is cheating on her its kind of sad. Whether or not this is intentional or not is debatable however. Michelle Monaghan definitely drew the short straw of the group in a role that is pretty pointless and just too unoriginal for me to give a damn about.
The humour of the movie and the unevenness of pace is definitely where the Heartbreak Kid literally breaks. The movie does start off quite well, sure its not classic but its amusing. In fact the start of the honeymoon is relatively funny, but then about the halfway mark the movie just gives up all hope and dies. The jokes dry up, the romance and sentimentality factor kick in and the eyes start to droop. Despite some decent one liners the movie just doesn't make an effort any more. You find yourself not caring anymore, you couldn't care if Eddie stays with Lila or not, you just want the movie to end. And then the film drones on and on and on. And then when you think you have an ending it suddenly does something else. Thankfuly the unexpected ending lifts things up slightly, but the standard beforehand is so low it doesn't redeem the movie. In fact take out the brilliant Mexican band running joke, the amusing sunburn bit, the few sex scenes and a couple of one liners this would struggle its already low 5/10 rating.
The Heartbreak Kid is really a movie I cannot recommend as it is way too disappointing. The cast do an admirable job with little material and the idea is there. A better movie is probably underneath this wretched turd somewhere, but unfortunately for now this movie remains just another lame addition to the Farrely brothers already struggling CV. The Farrely brother may have once been the kings of gross out comedy, but in an age when we have Knocked Up and Superbad, maybe its time they gave up and tried something else.
