Heartbreakers

2001 Comedy

After the little white lies of Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), director David Mirkin focuses on scheming of a different sort in Heartbreakers. Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt play Max and Page Conners, a mother and daughter who share everything with each other: relationship advice, hair and makeup hints, and the money they win in costly divorce settlements with rich men. When the film opens, the Conners are putting the finishing touches on conning Dean (Ray Liotta), an auto-body shop owner. When the dust from that scam clears, Page announces she's ready to move away from her mother and set up shop on her own -- but in order to clear an outstanding debt, Max insists they bankrupt one more bachelor together. They settle upon phlegmatic Palm Springs widower William B. Tensy (Gene Hackman), a chain smoker with a heart of gold and a similarly bountiful bank account. Only two things stand in their way: Tensy's Teutonic caretaker Miss Madress (Nora Dunn) and beachfront bartender Jack (Jason Lee), a wry stargazer with whom Page becomes unexpectedly smitten. Heartbreakers is the third collaboration from writers Steven Mazur and Paul Guy, whose previous screwball comedy was 1997's international hit, Liar Liar. more..

Director: David Mirkin

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee,Anne Bancroft

Reviews

  • Heartbreakers is "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" plus Gene Hackman as W.C. Fields. I guess that's enough to recommend it. It's not a great comedy, but it's a raucous one, hard-working and ribald, and I like its spirit.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    26 April 2013

  • It's not a pretty picture, but it is a pretty funny one when Gene Hackman shows up as William B. Tensy, a Palm Beach tobacco tycoon.

    Peter Travers - Rolling Stone

    26 April 2013

  • Heartbreakers itself is something of a con game: an expensive imitation of older, better films from older, often better times.

    Michael Wilmington - The Chicago Tribune

    26 April 2013

  • Never tickles your nasty bone, perhaps because, in an era when the gossip pages are dotted with news of celebrity prenups, the prospect of marriage as a route to instant fortune seems less scandalous than it does like business as usual.

    Owen Gleiberman - Entertainment Weekly

    26 April 2013

  • Lacks the kind of rhythm and snap to make it work -- and allows this fitfully entertaining romp to dribble on way too long.

    Edward Guthmann - The San Francisco Chronicle

    26 April 2013

Awards

  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical

    Satellite Awards (2002)

     
  • Film - Choice Actress

    Teen Choice Awards (2001)