Heartbreakers
All's well and good for a mother-daughter team of grifters who seduce men into marriage and trick them into hefty divorce settlements - that is, until love and morals start to get in the way.
Story
Sexpots Max (Sigourney Weaver) and her daughter Page (Jennifer Love Hewitt) have a good thing going. Consummate con artists, the duo make a living by swindling dumb rich guys. Max marries them, Page seduces them into adultery, Max makes off with hefty damages paid, and they're off to the Next Big Sting. This happens over, and over, and over, and still over again. Then one day Max's jilted husband Dean (Ray Liotta), a sleazy Jersey chop-shop owner, wises up and follows up in hot pursuit of the pair, who have hightailed it to Palm Beach to make their last big score with revolting, billionaire cigarette tycoon William B. Tensy (Gene Hackman). While Max attempts to snare Tensy, Page strikes out on her own and promptly falls for her first target, bartender Jack (Jason Lee).
Acting
Love Hewitt is obviously trying to shed her good-girl image by shedding her clothes in a formula caper romance but her one-note performance is banal. Weaver, who has always been well suited for comedy, can vamp it up with the best of 'em. But this dumb movie restricts her to bad lines and an even worse (and inexplicable) Russian accent in which she karaokes "Back to the U.S.S.R." - oof. Lee gives a non-performance. The only redeeming things about it is the comically vile Hackman and Liotta, who looks like he's having a great time spoofing his self created two-bit gangster persona.
Direction
This film has been knocking around since '96 when Anjelica Huston and Alicia Silverstone were considering it. What attracted respected actors like Weaver, Hackman, Liotta and Anne Bancroft (in a bit part) to this broad, obvious comedy now is beyond the scope of this reviewer. It's just NOT FUNNY. What it is is predictable - the conclusion to its contrived love stories comes at you like a Mack truck halfway through the movie, but you have to sit through a full two hours of PG-13-rated T&A to get there. (Guys, you might not think that's so bad). Take Love's love story, for example - now, if Jack is smart enough to see through Page's trickery, why is he stupid enough to fall for her? And why would a nice guy like him be attracted to a nasty slut who's trying to swindle him out of money?
Bottom line
A silly, broad comedy with little to offer, Heartbreakers is mostly a big headache.