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Show WASATCH COUNTY COURIER MARCH 28, 2001 aes | eee oe BS REVIEW The Charms of Vulgarity Heartbreakers * *& 1/2 STARS DIRECTED BY DAVID MIRKIN. WRITTEN BY ROBERT DUNN, PAUL GUAY AND STEPHEN MAZUR. STARRING SIGOURNEY WEAVER, JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT, RAY LIOTTA, JASON LEE, GENE HACKMAN AND ANNE BANCROFT. _ Review by Paul Swenson - ad the filmmakers of this cau_ tiously ribald comedy through on their carnal called followed convictions, they'd have it Ballbreakers rather than. Heartbreakers, recog: : nized the opportunity to more cleverly | exploit how befuddled insecure men feel in the presence of smart, shrewd and seductive women, and welcomed an “R” rating rather than settling for — “PG13.” Vulgarity is the Sul of this kind of cinema, and vulgar people can be amusing because they're less inhibited than we are, which allows us to laugh and feel - superior at the same time. Featuring 7 Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love He has time to probe the tips of a nude a condescending to Max’s con woman baad young schmucks into apply to Weaver as _ the elegant and cynwho presentthisadandreceivean — | oe : _ This offer will only appear twice... | | 4 | p ae = We hopetoseeyousoongf short- 200 8 Homestead Drive / ’ Midw. ay, Utah 84049 ae 654, il O2 / www. homesteadresort, con mother, Tensey’s disgusting stench smells too much like the corpse of her career—underneath the stale smoke, even the clean, fresh scent of of the take convincing while Page (with the help of a Anne Bancroft in a cameo) that she’s on the verge of bankruptcy. Page is pursuing a private con of Jack, the Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jeffrey Jones and Sigourney Weaver in Heartbreakers. plays us for suckers with its expectation that everything she flaunts below the neck is more than enough to keep | us interested. Love Hewitt? There are apparently those who do—as their eyes caress her nicely packed jeans. But none of them would likely think to accuse her of having the genes that lead to a flourishing acting career. ~The fact that Gene Hackman as William B. Tensey makes an appearance in the same scene in which the sculpture shows up is not coincidental. In the Annals of Indelicacy, hot mama Max and the prurient Page can walk | . owner of a water- front bar, played by © the mellow and agreeable Jason Lee (Mumford, Almost Famous). Once Jack pops out of the script’s collapsible box, we know where the story is heading—the introduction of romantic love as the snake in an otherwise unalloyed garden of cynicism. and clueless exterior lurks something loveable and worth redemption might even have worked if Hewitt had even a hint of intelligence in that handsome face. As much as we've been schooled fuming, hacking and gagging advertisement for the product that accumulated his Tensey not only smells like a corpse, and curse a good game. But you haven’t fully grasped the concept of vulgarity until you’ve been properly introduced to retired Big Tobacco noxious, ; OPEN EVERY DAY _ EXCEPT TUESDAY FOR DINN ER. Jack’s corny but charming willingness to believe that underneath Page’s hard by Hollywood to want to believe that love conquers all, here it merely saps the movie’s vulgar energy and blurs the distinction between reasonably amusing rude farce and halfcocked romantic comedy. : Despite the picture’s insistence on providing a romantic out for Max as well, Weaver escapes with her hard- Tensey—a % off the lion’s share -Max’s nubile,-nitwit daughter. She has so little going for her upstairs that (like the men she dupes) the movie exec - Friends from the valley, big score that will send her on her way. To her can pull off a con with style and wit. But then, there is Hewitt as Page, a and bunnies and chicks loose at your heels! - take advantage of it now! ments (most recently chop shop chump Dean Cumanno—kay Liotta). But her duplicitous daughter, who. does her part by coaxing the men into compromising positions before the marriages are consummated, is bored. She wants to end the partnership and ply her profession on her own. To Page, the bilious billionaire is one last | ical Max Conners, - beautiful Spring clothing you'll love to wear, a new line of white china to brighten your meals | career. She’s term marriages and lucrative settle- | = seductive” will sweeten the air, seduced and conned a series of handsome = =§ @ . you'll save 20% and not have to travel!— comedown but predictable screenplay is that Max and Page are also conning each other. Max is siphoning ”i “Smart, A Breath of Paris with Pink Roses ‘ nose and obscene haircut, Tensey represents its evel of comedy with a visual cue 30 and _ additional 10% discount on your purchase... _ When combined with your 10% Locals Discount, statue’s billowy breasts with his cane before lighting up again. With his red Hewitt as ‘mother-daughter, tag-team sexual swindlers, Heartbreakers pitches . a piece of Spring has sprung at The Homestead Gift Shop! made—not that it makes up forall. those years that Hollywood made the cigarette an icon of glamour and sophistication.) At the art auction where Max has arranged to parade her well-dressed goodies before Tensey’s piggish, little eyes, we see him enter the auditorium in a toxic cloud, and when told he can’t smoke, snuff his cigarette in the champagne glass of the offended hostess. | money isn’t as discernible to Max. - One of the twists in the competent minutes into the movie— ‘kitsch sculpture endowed with an | erect penis that will play a continuing role: in the ecient Brighten up your gray, March ial . boiled sexuality and irony intact. Once wealth and bought him a yacht and a but is one, however, the laughs don’t riverfront estate at Palm Beach. (As sort of reverse product placement, this movie may be the longest and funniest _. anti-smoking . commercial ever come easily. With Hackman around, Weaver is playing off someone of her own comedic stature. Once he’s gone, - Heartbreakers goes slack. - Tobie. reservation ie 5:30-9: 30pm Sunday Brunch L1a-3p glee our new ree ‘ROBERT CUBBERLY from San Francisco. Visit . us in our newly remodeled dining room enjoying our new menu and beautiful atmosphere. CALL FOR RESERVATIONS AT (435) 654-0892 ° i= |