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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 4 October 2007

Ben’s masterclass in the heart of comedy

THE HEARTBREAK KID
Directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly
Certificate 15

WATCH out! Those Farrelly brothers are on the loose again.
Directors Bobby and Peter, who gave us Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, always seem to be on a longer leash than most of us as they take their raunchy outrageous humour to the edge.
This sex comedy, loosely based on a 1972 version written by Neil Simon is no exception.
We find bachelor and 40-something Eddie (Ben Stiller) all togged up for a wedding, and get the first hint of things to come when his raunchy old dad (Jerry Stiller, Ben’s real-life father) says: “Watching your ex-fiancee walking down the aisle on St Valentine’s Day is a bit of a stinger, isn’t it?”
Sure enough, the loser-in-love is put at a singles table at the reception – as the only adult with a bunch of smart-aleck kids for company who start taking noisy bets on whether he’s gay.
He isn’t. On the contrary, Eddie just wants to find true love.
On the rebound, he bumps into an alluring blonde named Lila (Malin Akerman) outside the sports store he runs in San Francisc o.
After a whirlwind romance they get married – and that’s when his troubles start.
The girl turns out to be both an airhead and a nymphomaniac – their wedding night has to be one of the all-time classic comedy sequences.
The only position the sexual contortionist bride doesn’t want to know is the missionary one, and the next morning the poor chap is left a pale, hollow-eyed shadow of himself.
Worse, on their exotic “dream honeymoon” in Mexico, he meets a bright-eyed brunette named Miranda (Michelle Monaghan) and spends the whole time trying to pretend he’s single and prevent the pair from bumping into one another.
Ben proves himself yet again a masterclass in reaction to the dreadful things that befall him, while Stiller senior steals every scene he’s in with his lecherous chat-up lines.
It must run in the family.
The result is a barrel-load of belly laughs from start to finish, and wonderfully sizzling dialogue with more vitriol than ink flowing in it.
My sides are still aching.

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