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The Heartbreak Kid
The Heartbreak Kid
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Peter Farrelly; Bobby Farrelly
Screenplay by	Scot Armstrong; Leslie Dixon; Peter Farrelly; Bobby Farrelly; Kevin Barnett
Based on	The Heartbreak Kid; by Neil Simon; "A Change of Plan"; by Bruce Jay Friedman
Produced by	Ted Field; Bradley Thomas
Starring	Ben Stiller; Michelle Monaghan; Malin Åkerman; Jerry Stiller; Rob Corddry; Carlos Mencia; Scott Wilson; Danny McBride
Cinematography	Matthew F. Leonetti
Edited by	Sam Seig
Music by	Bill Ryan; Brendan Ryan
Production; companies	DreamWorks Pictures; Davis Entertainment; Conundrum Entertainment; Radar Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	October 5, 2007;
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$128.5 million

The Heartbreak Kid is a 2007 American romantic dark comedy film directed by the Farrelly brothers (who also helped to write the film alongside Leslie Dixon and Scot Armstrong). It is a remake of the 1972 film of the same name and stars Ben Stiller in the main role, Michelle Monaghan, Malin Åkerman, Jerry Stiller, Rob Corddry, Carlos Mencia, Scott Wilson, and Danny McBride. It tells the story of a sports shop owner who ends up in a rushed marriage with a woman and meets a true love interest during a trip to Mexico.

Plot

Eddie Cantrow, owner of a San Francisco sports shop, is single. One day, he attends the wedding of his former fiancee, whom he had previously been with for five years. There, Eddie gets to sit on the "singles table", filled with children of the other invited and obviously married guests. Later, while witnessing a purse snatching, he tries unsuccessfully to recover it, resulting in the thief attacking him. He and the purse's owner, Lila exchange pleasantries. Lila later appears at his store. In their next encounter, Lila admits that she did not come to the store to shop, but actually hoping to see him again.

They begin dating. Lila eventually announces that the company where she works as an environmental researcher requires her to move to Rotterdam. However, her company does not deploy married employees abroad. At the urging of his father Doc and best friend Mac, Eddie marries her after only dating for a few weeks.

During the drive to their honeymoon in Los Cabos, Mexico, Eddie learns things about Lila he finds annoying, such as incessant singing. Arriving at their room, they have sex for the first time and Eddie learns that Lila is aggressive in bed. Eddie tries to look beyond Lila's recent behaviors, but his disaffection deepens when she divulges her history of substance abuse which resulted in a deviated septum, so she sprays drinks out of her nose. He learns she was only an unpaid volunteer at her environment research company, and the "thief" was an ex who she owed money to. Eddie realizes he made a mistake marrying Lila. Not in love with her, he cannot stand more of her bad habits.

On the beach, Lila insists on using mineral oil, refusing sunblock despite Eddie's warnings about the sun. She then blames Eddie for the second-degree sunburn that she gets as a result. Distraught, he meets Miranda, a vacationer with her family from Mississippi. Eddie spends most of his honeymoon with Miranda and her family while the sunburn confines Lila to their room. Miranda's family all like Eddie except for her cousin Martin, who distrusts him. There is a misunderstanding between Eddie and Miranda's family, who hear he came to Mexico to mourn his wife who was killed by a maniac.

Eddie eventually decides to propose divorce to Lila at lunch, but then Martin and his brother Buzz confront him, with Martin shoving a spicy pepper up Eddie's nose as a result. When Miranda learns about Lila, she accidentally falls into the ocean; Eddie tries to save her and is stung by a jellyfish afterwards. Lila treats the stings by urinating on him, even with everybody watching. Eventually, Lila and Miranda both abandon him (Miranda for his lies and Lila for his wish for a divorce). Lila even destroys Eddie's passport stranding him in Mexico.

Depressed, Eddie starts to drink heavily and annoys a local with stories of his problems. Coerced by "Uncle Tito", the hotel owner and a friend of Mac’s, Eddie decides to go to Mississippi to make amends with Miranda. Border patrol agents repeatedly catch Eddie attempting to cross the U.S. border illegally, but he eventually gets to Oxford, Mississippi.

Upon meeting Miranda's family, he learns that she has married someone. Despite promising to leave Miranda alone, Eddie sneaks into her room and awakens Miranda. Her husband wakes up when Martin bursts in and attacks Eddie until Doc intervenes. Eddie agrees to leave if Miranda says she truly loves her new husband, which she does. Eddie leaves with Doc, not knowing that Miranda still has feelings for him.

Eighteen months later, Eddie is divorced from Lila (who got his store) and moves to Mexico to sell sporting goods on the beach. Miranda later finds Eddie there. She has left her husband and is still in love with him. Eddie is thrilled. Miranda, however, is unaware that Eddie had remarried to someone named Consuela, causing him to go through the same predicament again.

It is also revealed that Lila returned to Los Cabos and stayed at a hotel room with a donkey whom she has sexual relations with.

Cast

Ben Stiller as Edward "Eddie" Cantrow, a sports store owner who marries too soon and goes through turmoil.
Michelle Monaghan as Miranda, a woman in Mexico who Eddie believes is his true soulmate.
Malin Åkerman as Lila Cantrow, Eddie's wife who at first is everything Eddie wants, but later turns out to be a total nightmare due to her bad habits.
Jerry Stiller as Doc Cantrow, Eddie's father who often visits Las Vegas and gives Eddie rather vulgar tips on women.
Rob Corddry as Mac, Eddie's best friend who is in a struggling marriage himself.
Carlos Mencia as Uncle Tito, the owner of the hotel in Los Cabos that Eddie and Lila stay in on their honeymoon.
Scott Wilson as Boo, Miranda's uncle and Martin and Buzz's dad.
Danny McBride as Martin, Miranda's cousin who is suspicious of Eddie and treats him coldly.
Roy Jenkins as Buzz, Martin's brother who treats Eddie more fairly.
Ali Hillis as Jodi, Eddie's ex-girlfriend who gets married at the start of the film.
Amy Sloan as Deborah, Martin's wife.
Kayla Kleevage as Doc's Vegas Companion, a huge-chested woman who is in the scene with Doc during his phone conversation with Eddie.
Stephanie Courtney as Gayla, Buzz's wife.
Polly Holliday as Beryll, Boo's wife, Miranda's aunt, and Martin and Buzz's mom.
Eva Longoria as Consuela Cantrow, a Mexican woman who became Eddie's second wife at the end of the film sometime during the 18-month gap.
Lauren Bowles as Tammy, Mac's wife who ends up in a dysfunctional marriage with him.
Luis Accinelli as Manuel, an elderly Mexican who Eddie annoys after being stranded in Mexico.
Jerry Sherman as Anderson, Miranda's granddad.
Dean Norris as Jodi's father.

Production

The film was originally started in 1998 under Interscope Communications, who bought out the remake rights to the film, with Douglas Ellin writing the film.^[2] The film has sat on the shelf, and then the remake rights were passed to Radar Pictures after Interscope folded, who subsequently licensed the remake rights to DreamWorks Pictures.^[3] Barry Sonnenfeld was first attached to direct in 2004, but he turned down the offer.^[4] The Farrelly brothers were subsequently hired in 2005, thus ending the process of development hell after a few false starts, proceeding to production.^[5]

Promotion

During the film's preview at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, a sex scene from the film was cut due to backlash for the nudity in prior films at the convention such as 300 and Borat.^[6]

Reception

Box office

The film grossed US$14,022,105 (equivalent to $20,604,461 in 2023) in 3,219 theaters in its opening weekend, putting it in second place at the box office in North America. The film eventually grossed a total of $127,766,650 (equivalent to $187,743,773 in 2023) worldwide, which includes $36,787,257 in North America and $90,979,393 in other territories.^[7]

Critical response

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives The Heartbreak Kid a score of 29% based on 157 reviews, with an average rating of 4.56/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Despite some amiable performances, The Heartbreak Kid is neither as daring nor as funny as the Farrelly Brothers' earlier films."^[8] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 46 out of 100, based on 30 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".^[9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C-" on an A+ to F scale.^[10]

Peter Travers (of Rolling Stone) declared the film the year's Worst Remake on his list of the Worst Movies of 2007.^[11] Jonathan Rosenbaum (of The Chicago Reader) dismissed it as "brain-dead".^[12]