Heartbreakers stars Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt as mother and daughter con artists. The mother ropes wealthy men into marriage, the daughter then seduces the new husbands into compromising positions where they will be discovered by the mother, and the duo walks away with large settlements.

Hewitt longs to set out on her own, but Weaver is reluctant for her daughter to leave the nest.  She is especially fearful her daughter will end up in the same situation that resulted in her pregnancy.  Or, in her words, she is worried Hewitt will “conceive and leave”.

I enjoy movies about con artists, and I wonder what that says about me.  Similar to heist films, I enjoy seeing the complicated maneuvers necessary to pull off a big job. 

In this case, the alleged “final score” is to snag Gene Hackman, and it is a blast watching him chew the scenery as a deeply repulsive chain-smoker. 

There’s an especially interesting scene where Weaver, who inexplicably has adopted a faux-Russian accent, is taken to an authentic Russian restaurant by Hackman.  Through a series of missteps, Weaver finds herself on a stage and goaded into singing a traditional folk song–in Russian.  How she turns this situation on its head is as clever as it is improbable.

There is a similar vibe here to A Fish Called Wanda.  At many times, I found myself confused to see Weaver on the screen when I kept expecting to see Jamie Lee Curtis, instead.  I also often recalled Dirty Rotten Scoundrels while watching this. That isn’t to say the movie is as funny or clever as either of those pictures, but it is charming and enjoyable. 

Director David Mirkin wrote for The Simpsons and it shows.  In just one small example, a decision to go to Florida is immediately followed by a jump cut to a duck getting devoured by an alligator.  This startling joke takes all of one second, and it is a good example of the many laughs to be found in the first half of the picture, before it shifts to more dramatic territory.  Fortunately, it doesn’t lurk there long before more gleeful mayhem ensues.

Heartbreakers also has more cameos that I would have expected, including such diverse performers as Carrie Fisher, Ricky Jay, Jeffrey Jones and Sarah Silverman.  Most of these actors aren’t given much to do in their brief screen time, but I was pleased to see them, nonetheless. 

A couple of the more notable performances are from Nora Dunn as a whip-smart and highly suspicious housekeeper, and Anne Bancroft, who walks away with her first scene as a caustic IRS agent.  Ray Liotta seems to be having a great time riffing on his Goodfellas character, as the pigeon in the marriage scam at the start of the film.  He’ll be back for the final third, and what he does in reaction to many large fish swimming alongside a boat in absolutely side-splitting.

Not all movies need to reinvent the wheel, or even do an exemplary job of something that has been done before.  Sometimes, all I want is a moderately-clever film, with actors I enjoy seeing and who appear to be having a good time.  Heartbreakers won’t go down in comedy history but, sometimes, all I need is something light which makes me laugh.

Dir: David Mirkin

Starring Sigourney Weaver, Jessica Love Hewitt, Gene Hackman, Jason Lee

Watched on Kanopy