The Heartbreak Kid by Scot Armstrong, Leslie Dixon, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, Kevin Barnett, Bruce Jay Friedmann based on his short story "A Change of Plan" and Neil Simon

The Heartbreak Kid by Scot Armstrong, Leslie Dixon, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly, Kevin Barnett, Bruce Jay Friedmann based on his short story "A Change of Plan" and Neil Simon

The critics and the audiences have not been thrilled by this comedy, but the undersigned has a different perspective, although this note is not stating that this is Dr. Strangelove or Some Like It Hot.

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Eddie is the hero of The Heartbreaker Kid – portrayed by Ben Stiller – he is a forty years old owner of a sports goods store who meets Lila aka Malin Akerman in outré circumstances, as she is about to be robbed.

Eddie interferes, saving the woman after some ridiculous exchanges with the criminal who would not give up – we would later learn that the man had actually been the boyfriend of the bizarre damsel in distress.

They say good-bye, but the hero is mesmerized by the victim, a very attractive, charming Snow White that he fears he would not see again, as he laments to his father, Doc aka Jerry Stiller – who is the father of the actor in real life- known for his memorable role in Seinfeld, with lines as legendary as…

Serenity Now!!

Lila comes to the store that the protagonist owns, just as he talks with Doc, who has her…underwear, left with the son during the kerfuffle caused by the apparent robbery attempt.

One can see the moments as funny or just preposterous, while the panties with David Bowie printed on them are returned, the protagonist arranges to meet with the splendid woman.

The two would marry in about six weeks and the comedy may have some serious message, worth listening to, for one needs to know the future life partner thoroughly, before committing for life, to avoid a serious, catastrophic mistake.

The ultimate expert on marriage is the psychologist John Gottman, a man who has an accuracy rate of over ninety per cent, when assessing the viability of a couple, author of the quintessential The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work, wherein he emphasizes the need to know the loved one in detail – hobbies, favorite films, books, lines…everything.

Because the alternative to knowing the essential other half of the sphere of Plato is depicted in the film, where, after they exchange marital vows, Lila and Eddie have a Series of Unfortunate Events, due to her silliness and the fact that he was foolish enough to marry a stranger.

The woman had pretended to be an environmental researcher, but she had only researched a soap opera or two, they argue over the notion of job, which the husband is right to define as paid activity, while she refuses to admit that she had never had one, as researcher or anything else, except for some blue collar, low paid work.

On the way to their honeymoon, in Cabo, Mexico, the wife does show that she knows almost all the pop songs ever created, but the long journey turns out to be a torment, as the newlyweds begin to see they do not like each other that much…perhaps not at all.

“there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” – Hamlet, therefore there is a silver lining in all this, as the hero understands and states to his would be future partner, sometime later in the movie.

In Cabo, the Vile Body aka the ferocious wife insists on laying in the hot sun, while her spouse insists that she needs a lotion with a much higher level of protection to do that, for the effects could be calamitous, only to have his consort refute all that and lay there on the sand for hours.

The cataclysm does happen, the burns caused by intense, reckless exposure are severe, the victim would have to stay indoors, and therein we find the ray of hope for the inconsolable consort – in the sense that he may find solace outside wedlock, not irremediably sad because of the suffering of the silly woman.

As he spends time outside the room, Eddie meets Miranda aka Michelle Monaghan and the two are attracted to each other, the major problem being that he is on a honeymoon and cannot possible choose to be candid about that.

For a while, the game of hide and seek works, since the wife is suffering the consequences of her foolishness and obstinacy, but not for long, given that the burnt victim finally escapes the enclosure, the two are seen by Martin, somehow a determined enemy of the hero.

The plot is not immensely clever, but that does not matter so much in a romantic comedy, where the strategy is to give Cinderella the chance to meet her knight in shining armor, with some laughs along the way.