Heartbreakers Details

This complex, smart-talking con-trick comedy revolves around the appeal of mother-and-daughter grifters Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Weaver marries a man of means, while Hewitt seduces him before consummation, resulting in a nice big divorce settlement. It's well cast, with Ray Liotta as an earlier victim and Gene Hackman in fine WC Fields mode as the duo's latest patsy, a wheezing tobacco baron. Weaver and Hewitt's man-eating appeal is entirely credible — both look stunning thanks to the hard-working costume department — but ultimately the men are funnier than the women (and that can't be right). Liotta gets his best role for ages, while Jason Lee provides the easy-going love interest. The key problem with this multilayered farce is that it is 20 minutes too long — and comedy, more than any other genre, must never outstay its welcome.

An uneasy mix of sour and romantic comedy that never finds the right tone, though there is amusement to be had from Hackman's wheezy volcano of a tobacco tycoon.