Marriage. It’s the one word many admire, some question, and others loathe. In a media-driven society, many are unsure about their feelings related to marriage. Many want to find their “soul mate” and spend their life with this person, however most people’s views toward it are unrealistic. Once people hit age of 40, they are considered to be romantically “doomed.” They have been pressured to find a husband or wife and some settle just to fit in with their peers. The one main problem with marriage lies in commitment. Once again, the Farrelly Brothers deliver a comedic performance with Ben Stiller, who plays a guy who marries the wrong woman, then falls in love with the perfect one on his honeymoon.
The movie opens with Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller) who is 40, single, and has to watch his ex-fiancée walk down the aisle with another man. At the wedding, he sits with a table of children who interrogate him as to why he is single. He then meets Lila, an environmental researcher (Malin Akerman), on one afternoon and realizes she is THE perfect girl. They date for a mere six weeks and decide to marry upon the persistence of his father (Jerry Stiller). However, on their honeymoon he realizes that it was a big mistake.
Between singing on the radio, producing ghastly noises, acting like a monster during sex, and being in mass amounts of debt, Lila sounds like the perfect girl, right? One would think that in six weeks time, Eddie maybe would have witnessed some of these horrible occurrences of his partner instead of rushing to the altar. This leads to a major flaw in the movie which does not even delve into a description of their courtship leaving viewers pondering what happened in those six weeks.
At their honeymoon resort, Eddie meets the woman he should have married. Miranda (played by Michelle Monaghan) is a bright, funny, laid-back lacrosse coach who is on vacation for a family reunion. They “connect” on such a profound level after two days that he realizes he took the plunge too soon and made a big mistake. The big problem is that he never tells her why he is there in the first place which leads her to be livid at the fact that he acts as if he is in love with her when she is on her honeymoon. The Farrelly brothers never explain what happened in those two days that made him realize that she was it for him which leads to another flaw.
Eddie finds himself telling his crazy, week-old bride Lila that they made a mistake and cannot be married. She rips up all his personal information which forces him to stay in Mexico. He then stalks Miranda at her house (yet she is a newlywed to the wrong man) and has his heart broken. The movie then flashes forward to a year from now when Eddie owns his own sports shop at the same shop in Mexico with his new bride on the beach near him. Miranda, on her annual family reunion, runs into Eddie at his shop and the lovers reunite, leaving Eddie to leave his second wife for her.
As an update of the 1972 comedy written by Neil Simon and directed by Elaine May, “The Heartbreak Kid” is a mediocre performance played by Ben Stiller who marries the wrong woman, only to meet the perfect one on his honeymoon. The Farrelly Brothers produced a major disappointment to many theatre-goers because it was anticipated to be hysterical as seen in the previews, yet no one was falling out of their seat laughing. The movie did not match up to their past hits such as “There’s Something about Mary”, and is not up to par as other comedic hits during the past several months such as “Superbad” or “Knocked Up.”