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HEARTBREAKERS Send This Review to a Friend
The mother and daughter con artists are more ballbreakers than heartbreakers in this comedy about fleecing men of their money. Unfortunately there's more effort than laughs, although the film does have its moments.
Sigourney Weaver plays mom, Jennifer Love Hewitt is the daughter, and together they go about their con game, with Ray Liotta as the first victim after he's lured to the alter. Plot detail would spoil what fun there is. Weaver turns on the sex appeal throughout and the accomplished actress has the looks and come-on to get away with it.
Hewitt, although wrapped in tight clothes to lure men, is more on the obnoxious side than cute as the daughter who tries to show mom she's ready for big time cons, while mom is trying to be protective and show that she's still the smarter one. Gene Hackman comes on the scene as a rich old goat ripe for the picking, and Jason Lee is a younger potential victim. Anne Bancroft turns up in an entertaining role.
The trouble is that before long, after some initial laughs, writers Robert Dunn, Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur struggle to keep the one-joke idea afloat, and some of the scenes are heavy going, including one in which Weaver must lay on a Russian accent and try to sing a number in Russian, a language that she's been faking. Worse, the film has the daughter really falling in love, which means that unlikely romance gets in the way of the con comedy. Director David Mirkin strains to balance all of this, and the film ends up being more laborious than uproarious. An MGM release.
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