Letters to the Editor
Xrandadu Hutman
Published Letters: 2714 Editor's Choice: 52
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Miss this movie, but make sure to see the original
[Read the article: "The Heartbreak Kid"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The original is one of those classics that a lot of people don't know about. If you ever need proof that Charles Grodin is a great actor, you'll find it here. His scenes attempting to explain his absences to his wife -- where he describes a made-up car accident while she withers sunburnt in the hotel room -- are brilliant. So too is his simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking scene telling his sobbing wife over dinner why his leaving her is "for the best."
Cybill Shepherd also was never better. Between this movie and "The Last Picture Show" you can easily see why anybody (such as "Last Picture Show" director Peter Bogdonavich) would drool over Shepherd. Or change his whole life for her. "The Heartbreak Kid" has early scenes in sticky-hot south Florida and later scenes in the cold of Minneapolis, and this makes a good temperature metaphor for the action of the film. Grodin's attempts to woo the family (his incredibly insincere compliments to the mother's cooking) are also classic, as are his scenes with the gruff Eddie Albert.
As to the person who said "The Heartbreak Kid" is a parable of Jewish envy toward WASPs, while certainly this is an undercurrent or subtext, it is not the primary theme of the film. The theme of "The Heartbreak Kid" is universal -- it's about how much different the world looks after you get what you think you want.
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Last message
[Read the article: The untouchables]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wow, somebody's really angry at suicidal people, eh? Can't you think of a better target for your ire?
People who commit suicide aren't doing it for kicks. Most of them are severely depressed, despairing people. Reducing the ultimate desperate, self-destructive act to the word "selfish" is simple-minded in the extreme. Maybe you should turn in some of that judgmental garbage in your head and exchange it for some compassion.