What does a bachelor do when all his friends are pushing him into marriage? Listen to their advice, of course, even after only six months of knowing his wife. The Heartbreak Kid delves into a young bachelor’s pre- and post-marriage lifestyle, and by the end of the movie you get the feeling that he just isn’t cut out for marriage.
The movie opens up with a disgruntled Eddie (played by Ben Stiller) conversing with his father (played by Jerry Stiller) about how he wants to wait until he has found the right woman with whom to have sex. Of course, to his father, being a bachelor doesn’t mean living Eddie’s life like it was “a purgatory.” This gives us insight into Eddie’s personality and beliefs—especially his refusal to commit to anyone.
Of course, as fate or plot device would have it, Eddie bumps into a girl named Lila (played by Malin Akerman), who gets mugged at a bus stop. In a slightly humorous twist, Lila accidentally leaves a piece of underwear—with David Bowie’s face plastered on it—on the sidewalk. To Eddie, it was a sign; alas, the underwear didn’t contain a phone number.
The next thing you know, Lila shows up at Eddie’s store pretending to look for a fleece sweater, which eventually leads to a date with her “savior.” From here on out, it seems as if Eddie has found his soul mate. It almost seems too perfect, until Lila breaks the news that she needs to move to Holland. The only way to keep her from moving, however, is to get married—and Eddie goes straight into doing that.
After the highlights of the wedding, Eddie begins to have doubts. The honeymoon in Mexico gets slightly disastrous when Eddie discovers that there is more to know about his new wife than meets the eye; the fact that she doesn’t have a paying job, is $26,000 in debt, and used to snort cocaine are just small parts of the negative aspect.
During the honeymoon, Eddie also meets Miranda (played by Michelle Monaghan), a woman he hits it off with while his own wife was back at their honeymoon suite. As if that isn’t trouble enough already, Lila is having a completely miserable time and, because of a horrible sunburn, refuses to come out of the suite—which gives Eddie more time to spend with Miranda, who doesn’t know that he’s married.
A lot of misunderstandings get thrown back and forth, with Eddie on the receiving end of Lila’s and Miranda’s tempers. Hell hath no fury like two women scorned, as Eddie’s misfortunes include sneaking back into the United States after his own wife burns his passport. One cannot even begin to describe the irony of the ending, however, when the cycle begins anew with his second wife and indeed, he gets the name he deserves, the “Heartbreak Kid.”
The movie contained a few humorous aspects, but some of the jokes got old after they were repeated quite a few times. Not even the humorous Uncle Tito (played by comedian Carlos Mencia) could keep the audience laughing with the same jokes over and over again. The humor especially started to dissipate as some of the same concepts were brought up again after only 10-20 minutes of the movie. Not much else was left after that, really. The most amusement I got from The Heartbreak Kid was the irony that Eddie had when he repeats his mistakes with Eva Longoria. I still wonder why Stiller’s character would want to divorce Eva Longoria.
