Mini-Collab w/ Jetta

Although I can see why Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid is so highly esteemed, and while I found it a fascinating and well-made film too, I just couldn't fully jive with it. And that's left me trying to figure out why.

Lenny Cantrow induced sensations of physical nausea in me. His treatment of his newlywed wife - dumping her as soon as super-hot 1972 Cybil Shepherd shows him a bit of interest - was excruciating to watch. Sometimes you can see the blackly funny side of something but the blackness can blot out the laughter. I wanted to laugh but if I relaxed my diaphragm to do so, I might have thrown up.

The film is structurally unorthodox - which makes it interesting but also, I had to admit to myself, somehow unsatisfying. We are trapped in Lenny's perspective - not only is that uncomfortable, but it leaves the consequences of his heartless behaviour unseen. I hate that the last moment Jeannie Berlin has in this film is her cowering pathetically against Lenny in the restaurant - in total shock at the deep emotional violation we've just had to witness. I wanted to see her bounce back - if not back to happiness at least back to vengeful fury or perhaps transcendent pity.

I was outright confused by Kelly's character. Watch that scene in the first restaurant when Lenny first speaks to her parents, and check out her smirking contempt as she watches Lenny spin his egregious bullshit, and tell me she is not just taking this schlub for a ride. But then, somehow, she falls for him. How does that happen? Who is this person? She's opaque to the point of maybe just being badly written - either that or I'm missing an interpretation here. Entirely possible.

I like that this is an impossibly dark tale dressed up in the trappings of a quirky romantic comedy. It's the least romantic thing I think I've ever seen. But it slips away from me when I try to wrap my head around it. Definitely one for a rewatch sometime in the future - who knows how it might hit me when I'm in a different place, emotionally? It's that kind of film.

Respect, but not love.