HEARTBREAKERS

2001

If you're in the mood for a light, but very funny comedy about a mother and daughter team of con-artists (Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt), and the gullible rich men who fall for them, and are conned by them,(Gene Hackman, Ray Liotta, and Jason Lee,) then this is the film for you. We didn't stay for the credits, but if we had, I wouldn't have been surprised if they had stated that this was a re-telling of a French farce by Feydeau. You know, the kind of play that has people in disguises hiding on balconies, and cars passing each other to go to the wrong addresses, and hotel doors opening and closing while lovers just miss bumping into their own wives, and lots of jokes about penises. All of the actors are hilarious and larger-than-life in their roles, but Gene Hackman as an old tobacco magnate with a deathly hacking cough, steals the film. Even the smaller roles are played to the hilt by such pros as Anne Bancroft, Carrie Fisher, and Nora Dunn. I'm trying to decide about whether to give this film 3 or 4 stars, but hell, any movie that made me laugh as many times as this one did, deserves the bump up to 4.

4 Stars

NJB