Heartbreakers

Jason Lee gets to make out with Jennifer Love Hewitt in Heartbreakers, a 2001 comedy.

If you can get past the creepy premise, Heartbreakers is a pretty entertaining movie.

Max (Sigourney Weaver) and Page (Hewitt) are mother-daughter con artists. Max gets rich men to marry her while keeping the men from - er - enjoying the marriage.

Page then seduces the frustrated grooms, while Max conveniently catches them about to cheat, allowing the pair to split some generous divorce settlements.

When Page wants to go out on her own, there's trouble. Max knows her daughter isn't ready and sure enough, Page falls in love with the first guy she tries to con (Jason Lee as Jack Withrowe).

Meanwhile, Max is seducing the hilariously disgusting, chain-smoking tobacco mogul Tensy (Gene Hackman). To complicate matters, her last victim (Ray Liotta) is looking for her.

This got mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it. Ray Liotta and Gene Hackman are especially funny.

I did find Max's fake Russian accent annoying. It's not clear why she needs to affect a Russian accent until she tells Tensy she's about to be deported.

Lee's character is pretty bland and it's hard to understand how Jack sees the good in Page, who is really nasty to him throughout most of the movie. While he does get to respond to her nastiness with some good wisecracks a couple of times, it would've been nice to see more give and take when she gives him a hard time.

One more important fact for Jason Lee fans: He looks hotter in Heartbreakers than in any other movie he's been in. Too bad Jack isn't as interesting as some of Lee's other characters. But Jack is sweet. And, like I said, hot.

Overall, Heartbreakers is an entertaining movie, as long as you don't take it too seriously. It's meant to be frivolous entertainment. If you analyze the icky nature of what Max and Page are doing (and Dean does tell them they'll need years of therapy), you'll spoil all the fun.

Here's the trailer:



Janet