The Heartbreak KidMovie Reviews

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 46 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 Iffy for 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 80
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    You can expect to fall about, snort and hoot, at times hard enough to hurt inner body parts that only doctors can identify. Read full review

  • 80
    Variety | Lisa Nesselson

    Uproarious romp, grounded in believable if gleefully implausible human behavior, is a model of comic timing. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    Farrelly brothers films are looking better and better, but aren't nearly as funny as their grungy early films that hit with the stealth and vigor of guerrilla commandos. Maybe there is a kind of heartbreak here after all. Read full review

  • 67
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Grodin always seems like a real guy, whereas Stiller, even working it, is just the designated loser-clown of the megaplex era. He's too harmless to break any hearts. Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Though not as engaging as "Knocked Up," there is enough humor to keeps us entertained. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Walter Addiego

    It's funny in spots if you can tune out the Farrellys' ultra-crass jokes - along with any memory of the first movie. Read full review

  • 50
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    There are small moments of real humor. Read full review

  • 50
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    This remake is ultimately content to be repugnant. Read full review

  • 30
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    Lame, long, ugly joke of a movie. Read full review

  • 20
    Los Angeles Times | Carina Chocano

    A grim, shrill, deluded and incredibly depressing movie, so bewilderingly mean-spirited that the trademark Farrelly Brothers gross-out scenes feel like the sweetest. Read full review

View more reviews for The Heartbreak Kid on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 13+ Discussion-worthy '70s anti-romantic comedy.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this is not the R-rated 2007 remake, which is full of slapstick, cartoonish characters, hit music, and exaggerated dirty jokes, but rather the more down-to-earth original from the early 1970s. It would probably earn a PG-13 rating today (no such thing in the '70s), for mild bedroom scenes, some stripping, talk of sex, and swear words, mostly uttered by a horrified prospective father-in-law. The ending is not exactly in line with traditional notions of good behavior being rewarded, bad behavior punished.
  • Families can talk about the way Kelly tells cheating husband Leonard he's the "noblest" man she's ever met. Is she being incredibly dumb, or does she have a point? What has Leonard sacrificed because of his obsession with Kelly? What could/should the characters have done differently? What do you think will happen to them after the ending?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: This is a morality drama with a marked lack of good role models. Leonard may strike some viewers as a complete creep because of what he does to his new wife -- with the qualifier that he'll willingly give her everything in his divorce settlement. Kelly, his replacement love interest, is teasing and flighty. Her father's hatred of Leonard may be part bigotry. And there's a negative body image message: Leonard dumps an average-sized woman for svelte Kelly (Shepherd was actually a fashion model at the time).
What to watch for
  • violence false0 Violence: Not an issue
  • sex false3 Sex: Two lovers strip naked to look at each other (a chaste sex game that involves getting as close as possible without touching); strategic shadows prevent us from seeing anything. Newlyweds shown non-explicitly undressed in bed on their honeymoon. Lila, who refused to have sex before marriage (in a roundabout way this is taken as a negative) tries to give her new husband Leonard oral sex in a car and thrusts her breasts (barely covered by her bra) into his face.
  • language false3 Language: "S--t"
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Recreational drinking. Talk of characters being prodigious drinkers or suspected drug users and dealers.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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The Heartbreak Kid Movie Ratings + Reviews

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