The con is definitely on in director David Mirkin's (Romy and Michele's High School Reunion) new flick "Heartbreakers", a romantic comedy that offers just about everything to every gender and age. The good part about this film is that it is hilarious, but the best is that it does it the old fashioned way, with barely any toilet humor at all.
"Heartbreakers" earns it's humor by letting the character's make fun of themselves, especially Ray Liotta who comes off extremely well as a rough talking and goofy "goodfella" from Jersey. You can tell that the cast is having a lot of fun in this movie because they basically carry it. The script is very jumpy, cutting from good-natured romances, to funny and mean spirited cons, to a touching mother-daughter relationship. It is hard to exactly see where the point of this story is going sometimes because it is dealing with so much, but still the dialogue is very good and David Mirkin gets his cast to all put in lively and wild performances that make it all seem worth while.
Our two cons are Max (Sigourney Weaver) and Page (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a mother- daughter team who center their sights on two timing males. Ever since Max was abandoned by Page's father, she has been swindling the male sex, both getting her revenge and getting enough money to get by.
The way it works is that Max spends her time romancing a certain man, for instance the movie's opening victim (Ray Liotta), until he is ready to pop the question. Once the marriage has ended, she holds out on the sex, driving the guy crazy. Then the next day he sees Page, who in this plot just happens to be his new secretary in a short skirt. It doesn't take long before Page has him right around her little finger, and it isn't long before Max comes in and catches them. Then words like "divorce" and "cash settlement" are used. This funny opening couple of scenes is only the beginning.
These women have a whole bunch of tricks, using their bodies and their brains to get exactly what they want for the least amount of money. They can get out of anything, and away from everybody, except the IRS. An agent (Anne Bancroft) finally comes forward, saying that the two have never paid their bills, and if they don't, their assets will be frozen, which means the 300 thousand dollars they just stole will be gone.
Max has more problems as well. Page is ready to leave the nest and meet a man of her own, but Max is afraid to let her go because she doesn't want what happened to her to happen to Page. She is able to convince Page into doing one more job with her. The target, a rich old man (Gene Hackman) living in the upper part of Florida.
While on the island, Max manages to get close to the chain smoking millionaire, using her best Russian accent. Page, meanwhile, starts working on a bar owner named Jack (Jason Lee), who if he sells could earn up to 3 million dollars. This being her first job by herself, she wants it to be perfect, but doesn't expect to actually fall in love with him.
If you had to pick a strong and independent actress for your lead heroine, I don't think anyone could rise above the talents of Sigourney Weaver. She is a wonderfully funny combination of devious, sexy, smart, caring, and resourceful. She keeps an "in control" attitude on through the entire course of this film, and I actually cared about her, and her evil manipulation, because she gives her character good reason for everything she does. Here is a great female hero against male jerks and pigs everywhere.
Hewitt isn't far behind with a free spirited, pouty, and sexy performance as her "anxious to start a life of her own" daughter. Hewitt and Weaver are very funny together, especially in a battle of the bodies scene with former SNL cast member Kevin Nealon. Mirkin never lets the relationship between the two get overly sentimental, but yet still makes the mother-daughter conflict interesting. The same can also be said for the slight romance between Hewitt and Jason Lee. In a year full of romantic disappointments, these two make up the first likable couple of the year, even if their time together is fairly short.
And Gene Hackman is absolutely side splitting in this movie, showing a wheezing, sickly looking, rich target who is just infatuated with cigarettes. Watching him defend the tobacco company right before his parrot dies from second hand smoke is exactly the kind of "in denial" style humor he brings to this film. This is Hackman at his funniest, and it is a joy to see him in a role where he can just cut loose and have fun with a character for a change.
"Heartbreakers" is a decent comedy that never comes off as either feministic or sexist. It is all handled with great care by David Mirkin and he and the cast come through with the first really funny film of the year. If your looking for a good date movie, or just a good buddy flick, this one's "heart" is in the right place.
"Heartbreakers" earns it's humor by letting the character's make fun of themselves, especially Ray Liotta who comes off extremely well as a rough talking and goofy "goodfella" from Jersey. You can tell that the cast is having a lot of fun in this movie because they basically carry it. The script is very jumpy, cutting from good-natured romances, to funny and mean spirited cons, to a touching mother-daughter relationship. It is hard to exactly see where the point of this story is going sometimes because it is dealing with so much, but still the dialogue is very good and David Mirkin gets his cast to all put in lively and wild performances that make it all seem worth while.
Our two cons are Max (Sigourney Weaver) and Page (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a mother- daughter team who center their sights on two timing males. Ever since Max was abandoned by Page's father, she has been swindling the male sex, both getting her revenge and getting enough money to get by.
The way it works is that Max spends her time romancing a certain man, for instance the movie's opening victim (Ray Liotta), until he is ready to pop the question. Once the marriage has ended, she holds out on the sex, driving the guy crazy. Then the next day he sees Page, who in this plot just happens to be his new secretary in a short skirt. It doesn't take long before Page has him right around her little finger, and it isn't long before Max comes in and catches them. Then words like "divorce" and "cash settlement" are used. This funny opening couple of scenes is only the beginning.
These women have a whole bunch of tricks, using their bodies and their brains to get exactly what they want for the least amount of money. They can get out of anything, and away from everybody, except the IRS. An agent (Anne Bancroft) finally comes forward, saying that the two have never paid their bills, and if they don't, their assets will be frozen, which means the 300 thousand dollars they just stole will be gone.
Max has more problems as well. Page is ready to leave the nest and meet a man of her own, but Max is afraid to let her go because she doesn't want what happened to her to happen to Page. She is able to convince Page into doing one more job with her. The target, a rich old man (Gene Hackman) living in the upper part of Florida.
While on the island, Max manages to get close to the chain smoking millionaire, using her best Russian accent. Page, meanwhile, starts working on a bar owner named Jack (Jason Lee), who if he sells could earn up to 3 million dollars. This being her first job by herself, she wants it to be perfect, but doesn't expect to actually fall in love with him.
If you had to pick a strong and independent actress for your lead heroine, I don't think anyone could rise above the talents of Sigourney Weaver. She is a wonderfully funny combination of devious, sexy, smart, caring, and resourceful. She keeps an "in control" attitude on through the entire course of this film, and I actually cared about her, and her evil manipulation, because she gives her character good reason for everything she does. Here is a great female hero against male jerks and pigs everywhere.
Hewitt isn't far behind with a free spirited, pouty, and sexy performance as her "anxious to start a life of her own" daughter. Hewitt and Weaver are very funny together, especially in a battle of the bodies scene with former SNL cast member Kevin Nealon. Mirkin never lets the relationship between the two get overly sentimental, but yet still makes the mother-daughter conflict interesting. The same can also be said for the slight romance between Hewitt and Jason Lee. In a year full of romantic disappointments, these two make up the first likable couple of the year, even if their time together is fairly short.
And Gene Hackman is absolutely side splitting in this movie, showing a wheezing, sickly looking, rich target who is just infatuated with cigarettes. Watching him defend the tobacco company right before his parrot dies from second hand smoke is exactly the kind of "in denial" style humor he brings to this film. This is Hackman at his funniest, and it is a joy to see him in a role where he can just cut loose and have fun with a character for a change.
"Heartbreakers" is a decent comedy that never comes off as either feministic or sexist. It is all handled with great care by David Mirkin and he and the cast come through with the first really funny film of the year. If your looking for a good date movie, or just a good buddy flick, this one's "heart" is in the right place.