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Yes, the early '70s were simpler times.
Back then, if you had a story about a cad -- albeit a well-intentioned one -- it merely took a legendary writer (Neil Simon), a sophisticated comedy director (Elaine May) and a keenly subtle comic actor (Charles Grodin) to paint the shades of grey required to earn the audience's sympathy.
Attention spans being what they are today, what's called for now to tell such a story are hilarious head injuries, an extremely gynecological closeup of the lead actress as she urinates on her cheating husband's back to treat his jellyfish wound, a "fart" that is pointedly identified as not originating from her backside, and a deviated septum as a repeated sightgag.
Yes folks, it's the classic "unromantic comedy" The Heartbreak Kid, as reimagined by The Farrelly Brothers (presumably to be followed by Michael Bay's A Man For All Seasons).
Picking up the ball from a movie that earned Oscar noms in its original incarnation, the reigning deans of dumb perform a subtle-ectomy and squeeze into their own trademark template the story of a guy who falls out of love with his wife on his honeymoon and falls in love with someone else.
That's not to say that co-directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary) don't manage some funny moments in the process. But their "gag-first-story-second" act is getting old, particularly when they're being overshadowed by people such as Judd Apatow who do it better and with more authentic emotion.
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Ben Stiller stars in this decidedly unpleasant romance as Eddie, a sporting-goods store owner whom we meet unhappily at the wedding of his ex-fiance (whom he'd dumped).
A few scenes of moping later, he makes the accidental acquaintance of the gorgeous Lila (Malin Akerman), whom he impulsively asks to marry after a short courtship.
Love unravels in a compact car en route to their honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas as Lila sings every song on the radio at the top of her lungs, from the Spice Girls' Wannabe to The Captain & Tenille's Muskrat Love.
I'm not sure if any state other than Nevada would consider that cause for divorce, but by the time he discovers that making her laugh causes unappetizingly large pieces of food to work their way through her nose (the aforementioned deviated septum) and that she's nastier than he wants to be in bed, the bloom is off the rose.
This is actually the best part of the movie; it's all downhill from here.
The deus ex machina development: A horrible sunburn that keeps Lila bedridden (same twist as in the original), and allows Eddie to go off and meet a sweet young thing named Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), who's staying at the resort for a family reunion.
From here, The Heartbreak Kid unfolds like a typical rom-com with a bad aftertaste. Stiller is not the kind of actor who's instantly likable in a role, but one you have to warm up to. In this case, however, one warms down to him, to the point that by the end, there was palpable audience dislike (groans and the odd boo) toward him at the screening I attended.
(This film is rated 18-A)