Search - Heartbreak Kid on DVD

No "Pauper's Graduate"

Johnnie LeMaster | Brooklyn, NY | 05/15/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Respectfully disagree with the reviewer who called this film " a pauper's 'Graduate' " It couldn't be further from the mark, and this in no way is meant to diminish Mike Nichol's excellent 1967 film. On the surface "Heartbreak Kid" doesn't appear to take itself as seriously as The Graduate, but upon repeated viewing it proves itself the other film's equal in nearly every respect and actually surpasses it in others. It's a testament to the talents of Nichol's performing partner Elaine May, who directed daughter Jeannie Berlin and Charles Grodin in this 1972 gem. Many people are thrown by the film, likely because it's neither comedy nor drama. It's closer to black comedy, but even this doesn't cover it. Its ending frustrates many, but fits the film's theme beautifully.

The individual performances are sublime - Grodin hits the ball out of the park, and Jeannie Berlin delivers a performance that makes one wonder why she never went on to greater things. She absolutely steals the scene where Grodin breaks up with her a week in to their honeymoon at a Miami Beach lobster restaurant. In one nearly continuous take, she goes from obliviousness to the depths of grief, and then to quiet, dignified resolve. Cybil Shepard is perfectly cast as the shiksa goddess in her Last Picture Show prime, serving Grodin with the same pointed disregard as he does Berlin. The film is a testament to the subtleties of human cruelty, side-splittingly funny in parts and difficult to watch in others. It's the kind of film that reveals itself in repeated viewings over the years. Also one of the few films that works equally well in vignette, and can be broken down like "Goodfellas" for its individual scenes and performances. The clip with Eddie Albert and Grodin in the restaurant when Grodin reveals his plans for marrying Albert's daughter, and then adds the "one small complication" of his being a newlywed is brilliant, and can stand on its own.

It may not have the shine of The Graduate or the haunting refrains of Simon and Garfunkel singing "Sounds of Silence" as Benjamin explores the depths of his parents' swimming pool .. but it would be a large mistake to pass it off as a pauper's version of the more famous film. I've seen both many times, and I'll make an argument for The Heartbreak Kid every time."