The Heartbreak Kid

NEW YORK (CNS) -- There are some genuinely funny moments in "The Heartbreak Kid" (DreamWorks). They are more than overshadowed, however, by other scenes so outrageously coarse that they bring to mind the legal phrase "patently offensive."

This remake of a 1972 marital comedy, originally directed by Elaine May and scripted by Neil Simon, traces the amorous ups and downs of Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller). A San Francisco sporting goods merchant, Eddie is a 40-year-old, commitment-shy bachelor. Under pressure from his father, Doc (Jerry Stiller), and his married -- and henpecked -- best friend, Mac (Rob Corddry), Eddie proposes to his girlfriend, Lila (Malin Akerman), despite having known her for only six weeks. As the supposedly happy couple set off for their honeymoon in Mexico, Eddie begins to discover that his new wife is not at all what she seemed. She sings along endlessly with the car radio; she snores lustily; she squirts liquid out of her nose. Eddie soon longs for an annulment. After a third-degree sunburn confines Lila to their hotel room, Eddie, wandering the grounds of the lush seaside resort on his own, runs across Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), a Southerner who is visiting Mexico with a group of her relatives. Within hours, he's hopelessly in love. Complications abound as Eddie tries to figure out how to tell Lila that he's out of love with her and Miranda that he's married. In the meantime, of course, he must conceal from each the existence of the other. Brother-directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly's film has the makings of a reasonably funny, wry farce. But even so modest an aspiration as that is thwarted by the misguided inclusion of scabrous comic material -- gags that all too literally gag. In its review of the original version of "The Heartbreak Kid," the now-defunct cultural magazine Cue praised the film's restraint, not a compliment likely to be bestowed on this retelling. The film contains graphic sexual activity, full-frontal and upper female nudity, grossly scatological humor, implied bestiality, drug use, comic adultery theme, pervasive rough and crude language and occasional use of profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops