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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

An action-packed slog

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

Almost from the onset we can tell that Lenny and Lila are not meant to be. An early shot reveals that perhaps it was only the promise of sex that made Lenny agree to the marriage. On day one of the honeymoon period, they are happily bellowing The Carpenters from their car and cheering about Miami Beach. By day two they are practically screaming and yelling at each other. Jeannie Berlin plays the dopey, overexcited bride; they have just tied the knot and she is already preparing for their golden oldies, and he's tilting his head around the corner, looking back on what he left behind. May taps into a Jewish type homeliness that Berlin immediately takes on board. Watch Lila devour an egg-salad sandwich without the least bit of concern about her appearance, and see Lenny cringe on the spot and re-evaluate his whole life. His new wife is pretty, though a little big-nosed, and can't hold a candle to the angelic WASP beauty that approaches him during their honeymoon. Just compare them physically, which is what Lenny does right away. She is a young Cybill Shephard, who seems to descend down from the heavens themselves into Lenny's eyeline. Because his wife is lying in their hotel like a wrinkly bright red prune, he is immediately taken to her like a teenager who catches a pretty schoolgirl's eye is. Every word out of Kelly's mouth is the gospel, her laugh is like a newborn baby's first. And all the while he is rushing into the room and rushing out half dressed, spinning another unlikely story to Lila. Grodin has the uncanny ability to seem so sincere, so self-righteous. He is an early Woody Allen prototype, so when he is accused of something he rightly knows he is guilty of, he explodes defensively, getting mightily offended that she would even suggest such a thing. He does the same thing in perhaps the funniest scene in the film, where he tentatively breaks the news of divorce to his wife of five days. If she would have a little pecan pie before the bad news she will be okay, Lenny thinks, so he is furious when the restaurant has run out. Without even thinking, he frames the talk as though it is he that is making the sacrifice here, setting her free so she can chase her dreams or whatnot. Lila is of course too naive, too innocent, which forces the excruciating words out of Lenny's mouth. So while the poor girl is basically hyperventilating, he has already swept clean his conscience and moved on, thinking himself having done the right thing. Ah, the pecan pie arrives just in time for the sobbing ex-wife, a piece of brilliant comedic timing. "You gonna eat the pie? You want a little piece of pie?" prods Lenny, as if dessert will solve everything. The film is mightily funny because Grodin plays Lenny completely and unrelentingly straight. He believes sincerely in every phony and god-given word that comes out of his mouth, and has a determination only matched by his stupidity. We sense that Kelly is used to dangling men on her arm; she has a whole posse around her everywhere she prances in college, and can even persuade her father to do things he would never dream of doing. Before Lenny she has never been approached and propositioned by someone so straightforward, so without shame. Only by sheer persistence can he replicate the same fling from the sun-kissed Miami beaches to snowy Minnesota.The genius of Grodin's performance is that he does not see himself as doing any wrong, and this gives him the false confidence to wreak havoc no matter where he goes. When a schoolgirl smiles at those sideburns and teddy-bear locks of his, he gives a stupid, adolescent grin like Christmas has come early. And when he sees her naked for the first time, he blurts out a teenager's line. Lenny has the ability to say the most outrageous things with a straight face; "There's no lying in that beef," and so on. This is reminiscent of Chance the gardener in Being There, whose metaphoric life advice gave a wholesome country food for the soul. Mr Corcoran, the most sensible character here, sees right through him, and so do we, but because he is a teenager in love, he will go to the ends of the earth and then some to get want he wants. So we smash cut hilariously to the wedding, where an ecstatic Lenny has just gotten his gift. He wanders around, engages in some small talk, and then is left alone once again. His first marriage lasted all of five days, and now this one is already boring him during the ceremony! At times the actions of Lenny are cringe worthy, and it is hard to watch, but how engaging is it to see how far he can take it all. The film painfully and humorously reveals the depths that sheer will can take us.

The movie's a comedy, I think, though it produces as many cringes as laughs. It's hard not to laugh at poor Lila (Berlin) as she flubs her honeymoon with sunburn crème blotches, oozing egg sandwiches, and ill-timed bathroom breaks. But then she's so emotionally needy, it's hard not to laugh and cry at the same time. On the other hand, husband Lenny's (Grodin) got all the empathy of a ham sandwich, as he chases after blonde goddess Kelly (Shepherd), piling one absence excuse on Lila after another. This is the honeymoon from heck, especially after the goddess-struck Lenny sues for divorce. But then he does grant Lila "the luggage".The humor's in the character set-ups, and Lenny's special brand of chutzpah. A little fast- talking, he thinks, gets him out of any situation. That is, until he runs into Kelly's humorless dad (Albert). Seems like the proverbial irresistible force has run into the immovable object. But has it. Grodin's appropriately obnoxious when Lenny needs to be; Berlin's vulnerable when Lila needs to be; Shepherd's gorgeous without trying; while Albert's stony mug belongs on Mt. Rushmore. And catch that contemplative ending, not what I expected, but probably appropriate for what's gone before.All in all, the movie's something of a guilty pleasure and certainly one of a kind. I do, however, miss Grodin's smirking brand of put-on.

****************WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***************This is a wonderful comedy, written by Neil Simon from a story by Bruce Jay Friedman and directed by Elaine May, the former partner in comedy to Mike Nichols, It's one of Cybil Shepherd's first movie parts and also stars Elaine May's daughter (Jeannie Berlin) in a role that is not glamorous and makes a convincing case that there was no nepotism involved in the casting of this movie. Charles Grodin plays an extremely foolish Jewish man from New York who marries a Jewish girl merely out of convenience( Jeannie Berlin). On their honeymoon his wife becomes incommoded and is left to fend for herself whilst Lenny falls into lust with a young, sexy WASP he meets on the beach, who he describes in his own mind as his 'ideal' woman. Kelly (Cybil Shepherd) is, on the face of it, attractive on the outside, but perhaps a little lacking in other attributes such as intellect or character. Lenny meets her parents to inform them of his feelings for their daughter, but her rich father is not impressed.'The Hearbreak Kid' can best be described as a 'comedy of embarrassment' both for the characters and the audience. This film is an hilarious example of how much funnier it is to laugh 'at' people instead of 'with' them and that's why the audience is embarrassed by watching this film. Lenny from the start is portrayed by Grodin as nothing more than a naive, grasping, horny young fool; Kelly is selfish, grasping, and unaware of anything going on outside of her own tiny universe. Her parents are cardboard cut-outs without any kind of character or judgment. As played by Eddie Albert, Kelly's father is a dangerous buffoon even more out of control than Lenny and when Lenny and Kelly finally do get together they are both sorely disappointed with the result.I am far too young to appreciate the past glories of the Nichols and May comedy team who were such a success in the U.S. in the 50's. I can only tell you that judging from this film, Elaine May has a marvellous eye for the foibles of people and manages to turn satire into something with a deeper meaning to it. It seems as though we are all little people as judged by the universe, with very little hope or opportunity to attain something that may be greater than ourselves. There is nobody in this film who appears to be very bright, so you could say that it's a case of equal opportunity silliness, with nobody intentionally singled out. It's a film that does not confirm one's faith in other people and it's a daring ride to have the carpet tugged out from underfoot by the comic unpredicability of the plot and character. Since I am probably one of the few persistent souls who made the effort to rescue this title from the obscurity to which it has been consigned, I can't imagine that it's to be released anywhere or anytime in any zone in the near future and I find this prospect disappointing. That this film has been so criminally overlooked is a mystery to me and it gives me a great amount of pleasure to give it the highest recommendation that I can without looking foolish.

This is a movie that operates on more than one level, most of which is so subtle as to be nearly imperceptible --or at least seems to be imperceptible, dwarfed as everything else is by the manifest opprobrium of the main character.Superficially what we all clearly see is a dark comedy about a despicable cad, Lenny, who is not just despicable, but despicable with oblivious aplomb, a role played masterfully by Charles Grodin, the aforementioned opprobrious main character and star of the movie. That factoid right there sets up a dynamic wherein people are either going to love this movie or hate this movie, based strictly on how Lenny strikes them. Some find humor in this guy, but others do not. Many are off-put. So off-put, in fact, that they can't get past it. In that way I would compare this 1972 film to a more contemporary one, Sideways (2004). In Sideways the main characters, Jack in particular (played by Thomas Haden Church), were so personally offensive, in word, in thought, and in deed, that many people intensely disliked the movie solely on that basis. People say to me, "I hated Sideways." I ask them why and they say, "I couldn't stand Jack." Some perspective is called for here. The viewer is supposed to dislike Jack in Sideways. That was intended. Maybe find him a little entertaining --or not-- but disliking him is the intended effect. Likewise here with Lenny in The Heartbreak Kid. We are supposed to dislike Lenny. We can laugh at him too if we want to, and he is funny, but disapproval and repulsion is the intent.At the very least Lenny's actions make most people just plain awkwardly uncomfortable. The movie thereby evokes certain feelings and emotions in the viewer that aren't often evoked by movies, which, all by itself, makes this movie unique. As a work of art it makes it a success. And that's just the superficiality of it. There's more to it than just that. Bruce Jay Friedman, the writer, and Neil Simon, the director, were actually making some much deeper ethnic observations and social commentary here. Commentary about Jews, about Jews and Jewish culture in modern America, about Gentiles too, and about how Jews and Gentiles interact in that modern America. All that. But mostly the observations and commentary was about the condition of young Jewish men (some of the very same turf that was being plowed by novelist Philip Roth in about the same era as this movie was released). Lenny, the character played by Grodin, is the almost stereo-typical young angst-filled Jewish male, desperate to break out from the box of tradition which was preordained for him, and who rubbishes his very Jewish bride on their honeymoon to lust after a very Gentile blond, Cybil Shepherd as Kelly Corcoran, all as a part of that angst condition. The Corcoran family, meanwhile, presenting themselves as the cold, aloof uptight WASPs.Friedman had a lot to say here. Simon executed it well. Probably among Simon's best work, although not ever really recognized as such. A remake with Ben Stiller in the Lenny role is now in the works, soon in the offing. We'll have to see if they improve upon the original. I have my doubts that they can even come close. While not perfect, the original is a good movie. But perhaps the time for this story has passed. It was relevant, pertinent, and apropos for 1972. Not so sure about that in 2007. Not to disparage Ben Stiller, but the underlying themes of this movie wouldn't mean as much today as it did 35 years ago.Grodin and Shepherd give good performances. Eddie Albert did too. I heard Cybil say in an interview not all that long ago that she always wished they'd done a sequel to it, and that she was still open to the possibility. Very much worth seeing before one sees any remaking of it.