The Heartbreak Kid, 1972: A Review

Aaron Hunter on Movie.talk

I was scrolling on my iPad, looking for free movies the other night when I came across a classic, The Heartbreak Kid. This wasn't the Farrelly brothers blunt-humored remake of 2007, but the 1972 original, with a screenplay by Neil Simon and directed by Elaine May. If you haven't seen this film, make the effort, because it's a gem. Simon's screenplay delivers at every point, and at no time does the inimitable Charles Grodin fail to personify the lead character, Lenny Cantrow. Comedic timing of the whole cast was no doubt enhanced by Elaine May's impeccable direction.

***Spoiler alert: Although, I don't think it's possible to spoil the plot of this movie. It's less about what happens than it is about how it happens. The plot is essentially revealed in the trailer. Lenny Cantrow gets married, goes to Miami Beach for a honeymoon and breaks up with his wife almost immediately. He has met someone else who captures his heart.

Here's the trailer, which is exquisitely true to the script. No special effects. The actors and the lines speak for themselves.

Please don't overlook Eddie Albert's performance in this trailer. The performance is one for the ages, and earned Albert an Oscar nomination that year. I could watch the trailer ten times, and think I may have.

When I describe the comedy as dark, I mean really dark. I believe it reflects a worldview that was symptomatic of the culture from which it sprang. The movie resonates with flat cynicism. There is ennui and disenchantment. A whole class of post-WWII writers evidenced this malaise in their work. Norman Mailer, in Death of a Salesman, for example; Philip Roth, in Goodby, Columbus; and John Steinbeck, in The Winter of Our Discontent--to name three.

Miami Beach, 1972, Where Lenny and Lila Go on Their Honeymoon
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Credit: Fred Ward. NARA Public domain

Lines from T.S. Eliot's Poem, The Hollow Men ran through my mind as I sat down to write this review. The poem begins with a devastating appraisal: We are the hollow men. Other lines from the poem capture for me the character of Lenny: (Credit for these excerpts goes to the University of Minnesota website, The Hollow Men):

We are the stuffed men, Leaning together, Headpiece filled with straw

and

Between the emotion, And the response, Falls the Shadow, Life is very long

Lenny Cantrow, the young man at the center of The Heartbreak Kid (1972 version) is an embodiment of the poem. He is neither idealistic, nor nihilistic. He is hollow. He is not moving away from something, nor toward something. At the beginning of the film we hear the words from the movie's theme song: "Hang in there..You'll be alright...Keep your smile..."

1972 MG Midget
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Credit: PhoenixMgmidget.This looks just like the two-seater Lenny Cantrow drives as he heads toward his first honeymoon in Miami, with Lila. Used under CC 4.0 license.

Lenny is holding on. He's directionless. He catches a breeze and follows it. There is in him no long-term purpose, no awareness or conscience. He is what he appears to be, and he appears to be whatever the situation requires. No depth, no constancy, no substance.

The Farrelly brothers released what was characterized as a remake of the '72 Heartbreak Kid. The value of this remake is largely in the way its contrast illuminates the brilliance of the original.

There is nothing philosophical or redeeming about the Farrelly film (more like a rehashed mishmash). Lenny Cantrow in the remake is symbolic of nothing. He is a self-centered buffoon. Lila, who in the original is a rather irritating but sympathetic innocent bystander to Lenny's aimlessness, in the remake becomes loathsome.

Lila, in the remake, is basically a grifter with a coke habit. She and Lenny deserve each other, so the emotional center of heartbreak is absent. What were the Farrellys thinking? They weren't, and they don't expect us to think either.

If I'm going to contrast the original Heartbreak Kid (1972) with another for cultural insight, I choose The Graduate. Made only five years earlier, this movie represents a completely different mindset. And, as is true of the original Heartbreak Kid, the 'bones' of this movie are top drawer.

Mike Nichols directed The Graduate. Calder Willingham and Buck Henry wrote the screenplay. Dialogue they put in the mouths of the actors is both acid and humorous. The performances delivered by lead actors Dustin Hoffman and Ann Bancroft earned them places in the pantheon of acting superstars. Both garnered Oscars for their roles in the movie.

The Graduate embodied the spiritual milieu of a generation that came of age in the 60s. A soundtrack from Simon and Garfunkel plays in the background. The music speaks of vision, and dreams, of wrestling with a darkness and then rising above it. At the end of the film, the protagonist, Benjamin Braddock, is moving away from the darkness and going forward with promise. We hear the words, "..And the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains..."

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In its original incarnation, The Heartbreak Kid offers us a counterpoint to The Graduate's Benjamin Braddock. Lenny Cantrow represents not only the antithesis of decency, but also a vapid attraction to the superficial. Kelly, the woman to whom he is drawn on his honeymoon, is entirely without conscience. She knows Lenny is married and encourages him to leave his wife, to "drop the bomb" on her.

Lenny is not only shallow in his personal relationships, but he also rejects his roots.

His first marriage takes place in a synagogue. There is the traditional breaking of a glass and overt religious and ethnic references. His second marriage takes place in a church. The reception and the guests are WASP caricatures. At the ceremony Lenny is almost too busy to pay attention to his new wife. He has moved on already, to the next bauble, the next self-satisfying distraction.

There are few characters in the movie who are truly likable. As I think about it, an exception might be the kids who appear at the end of the film. Lenny bores them as he bores everyone else at his wedding reception. But at least these children have the courtesy to excuse themselves as they walk away from him.

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