The Heartbreak Kid
(1972)
Directed by: Elaine May.
Written by: Neil Simon based on the
story by Bruce Jay Friedman.
Starring: Charles Grodin (Lenny Cantrow),
Cybill Shepherd (Kelly Corcoran), Jeannie Berlin (Lila Kolodny), Audra Lindley
(Mrs. Corcoran), Eddie Albert (Mr. Corcoran).
The
Heartbreak Kid is one of the best American comedies of the 1970s – and one that
continues to be relevant and influential to this day. At the time, many saw it
as a response to The Graduate (1967) directed by Mike Nichols, May’s former
comedy partner. And in some ways, you can understand why that is, as both films
center on young, Jewish men who fall for a wealthy WASP princess, and end up
heading off into an uncertain future at the end. Nichols’ film is a certified
classic – it ranked in the top 10 of the AFI’s top 100 List of all time in
1997, and in the top 20 in 2008 – and won Nichols a Best Director Oscar. While
The Heartbreak Kid was the biggest hit – critically and commercially – of May’s
too-short directing career, it hasn’t entered the canon in quite the same way
as Nichols film. Yet, it should be. While The Graduate is probably a better
directed film – Nichols was certainly playing with different techniques,
whereas May is a little more straight forward, if I’m being honest, I think
about May’s films – and its haunting final scene far more than I do about The
Graduate. While I think The Graduate has aged a little bit, The Heartbreak Kid
remains much more relevant. It’s brand of wince comedy – where you laugh
nervously, because the scene in front of you is so painfully awkward and
realistic – is more prevalent today than it was in 1972 – making this film a
forerunner. The Heartbreak Kid is a masterwork – a film that gets better each
time I revisit it, even if doing so is painful.
The
film stars Charles Grodin as Lenny Cantrow – a young, Jewish man in “athletic
equipment”. His girlfriend is Lila (Jeannie Berlin – May’s daughter, playing a
character not unlike May’s in A New Leaf – except with the annoying level
cranked up to 11). In a very brief opening segment, she refuses to sleep with
him until they get married – so, of course, that’s what they do. They then pack
the car up, and head on a long drive from New York to Miami for the Honeymoon.
The first day feels like bliss – the newlyweds singing in the car together,
having fun, having sex in the motel at night, etc. Then, each passing day, gets
worse and worse – Lila continues singing the same damn song, she nags at Lenny,
over-and-over again during sex, looking for reassurance. And, when she eats,
she makes a complete mess of herself. In short, even before Lenny and Lila get
to Miami, he is well on his way to hating her – even if she still seems like
she’s in a state of blissful ignorance.
Things
only get worse once they are in Miami. The two go sunbathing – and despite
Lenny warning her, Lila doesn’t put on sunscreen, and gets a horrible sunburn.
Lenny doesn’t mind that too much however – because he’s already met Kelly
Corcoran (Cybill Shepherd) – a blonde, university student goddess – vacationing
with her rich parents (Audra Lindley and Eddie Albert). Kelly is a flirt, and
its clear to the audience from their first meeting that she enjoys toying with
Lenny – seeing just how much she can get him wrapped around her little finger
(completely) – and how much she can use him to anger her father (a lot).
This
was Grodin’s breakthrough role – and in many ways, he never topped it. Here is
wonderful here – whether he’s trying to win Kelly’s affection, making up one
ludicrous excuse after another to get out of spending any time with Lila on
their honeymoon, or trying, with complete sincerity and honesty, to win over
Kelly father – who clearly, and rightly, hates his guts. It is a wonderful
performance, where Grodin hardly ever shuts up (making that last moment in the
film, which we’ll get to, all the more potent). Grodin is at his best here in
several, painfully awkward and protracted dinner sequences – including a 12
minute a breakup scene with Lila – which always has been diving for cover, as
the scene is simultaneously hilarious and painful – really, it’s one of the
most painful scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie – and it’s made more so by just
how clueless and happy Berlin makes Lila in that sequence right up until Lenny
drops the bomb on her.
While
Grodin is the star of the movie, the rest of the cast is nearly as good. Berlin
and Albert received deserved Oscar nominations for their performances. Berlin
makes Lila incredibly annoying to be sure – but there’s an undercurrent of
sweet, naiveté about her as well. She’s
insecure – after all, she’s young, immature, a newlywed, and has just lost her
virginity to boot. She genuinely just wants to spend with her husband – who she
clearly loves – on their honeymoon, which is normal. It’s a brilliant comedic
performance – and also one that breaks your heart a little bit. Eddie Albert is
a deadpan gem in the film – he looks at Grodin’s Lenny with utter and complete
contempt in each and every one of their interactions – even before he has any
real reason to hate Lenny, he does. He’s the only character who calls Lenny out
on his bullshit.
Then
there is Shepherd’s Kelly – who to me remains an enigmatic mystery at the heart
of the movie. You can argue whether or not Shepherd was a great actress in the
1970s – yet you cannot argue that two great directors – Peter Bogdanovich and
Martin Scorsese – used her to presence wonderfully well as the personification
of female perfection in The Last Picture Show (1971) – which punctures that
perfection a little, and Taxi Driver (1976), which doesn’t. Her role in The
Heartbreak Kid is seemingly very similar – the beautiful, unattainable, rich
blonde, who toys with the hero – which Shepherd does quite well. What I still
don’t really understand about the movie is why, in the final act, does she fall
for Lenny? Up until then, it seems like she is merely jerking him around
because she can – even after he shows up in Minnesota, newly divorced, for her.
But she does fall for him. I’ve never been sure if this is a merely an element
of the plot that needs to be there – they ending doesn’t work without it – or
if it was deliberate on the part of May and screenwriter Neil Simon. Surely,
she doesn’t go as far as she does merely to piss off her father, does she? Is
it something deeper than that? In his review of the film, Roger Ebert said that
Kelly was “in a lot of ways the most interesting character in the movie” and
that “She's so inapproachably beautiful that, in a way, all she can do with men
is tease and taunt them -- they're too hypnotized to treat her as if she were
alive and accessible.” – Which is true of all the other men in the movie other
than Lenny. Is that really all it is – that Lenny pursues her so relentlessly,
and shows her devotion. Does she really “hunger for love even more than Lenny”
as Ebert said? I’m honestly not sure – but every time I watch the film, I find
myself watching Kelly closer and closer – trying to crack her. I’m haven’t got
there yet, but it’s fascinating just the same.
The
final scene of the movie is simple perfection. After spending the entire movie,
constantly on, constantly talking, constantly scheming, Lenny has a moment of quiet
by himself, humming a very particular tune we heard earlier in the film, the
look on his face far from the exuberance you may expect since he has just
gotten what he wanted for the entirety of the movie. When I first saw the film,
I took that look to be one quiet emptiness – the moment that he realizes how he
everything he wanted, and he still isn’t happy. I still think that’s part of it
– or could be. But I see that look somewhat differently now – or at least more
ambiguously. What the hell is Lenny thinking in that moment? We’ll never know
for sure – but it is a moment that I continually come back. It is the perfect
end to this brilliant film - a moment of confidence on the part of Grodin, May
and Simon, who spent the entire film filling the silence, and then makes us sit
with it in the end.
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