That guy Lenny could never get a girl like Cybill. He's got that annoying, shy dorky laugh that would a turn off any women. He's a coward, scared of everything, unconfident... doesn't know what he wants, **** foot around all the time.
Come on, the blonde girl has more courage than him, is funnier than him, wittier than him, etc. He's a dork. He would be friend zoned the first glance she gave him.
You do understand that the film is a comedy and shouldn't be taken serious, the fact that an ugly guy with a low paying job and zero in the personality department like Lenny, who is on his honeymoon, can score a beautiful blond like Kelly is pure science fiction, and that's what makes it a Neil Simon comedy classic.
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I can't believe they remade it with Ben Stiller. Isn't there some good foreign movies they can copy rather recycle this.
I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else
Could not agree less.
I have seen many really pretty women, from good families, end up with pot-smoking, non-working, absolute morons...but they have enough "bad boy" attributes that she "loves him" and even puts up with abuse.
If you guys have not seen this yourselves, you must be young!
I completely disagree-- look around you at the real world and notice that the qualities you're ascribing to him and assuming to be turnoffs to women are actually endearing to women. Additionally, your belief in the mythical "friend zone" is evidence that you aren't paying careful attention to reality.
shareAgreed. I kept thinking Cybill's character would be the type of girl who'd go for the alpha male football jock who would ROCK. HER. WORLD. Not this shrimpy guy.
shareRecall the scene where Lenny comes to Kelly's college campus and bravely...and expertly...chases off her college jock "bodyguards" by posing as a narc and threatening them.
He touches several bases, there: bravery against physically stronger men; "brain versus brawn"(he literally outsmarts them and reveals them to be dumb and child-like); and an "older man thing"(if Kelly is still in college, we can figure that Lenny is at least five years older than her.)
The entire insanity not only of deserting his bride on their honeymoon and then attempting to convince Kelly's man-eater rich father(Eddie Albert, Oscar-nommed) to give up his daughter in marriage...rather overwhelms Kelly. Probably NO man in her playground has ever gone this far, fought this hard.
Also: at this time and at that age, Charles Grodin was not ugly. He was handsome enough(the CHARACTER was rather ugly inside.)
I agree that the film was "fanciful"(if not science-fiction) but movies are that way, and the story was meant to show us the "dark side of can-do persistence." Lenny wants what he wants and goes all the way to get it, and, of course, when he gets it(Kelly being walked down the aisle by Dad himself)...he realizes he didn't much want it, after all. The chase, not the catch.
I think. also perhaps, that Lenny had taken his con about as far as he could and was in a crowd of people who saw through him as a phony instinctively (even the kids a the wedding reception felt awkward around him).
shareHe successfully wore her down. That's why she consented to marry him. Also, there's the possibility that she married him to piss off her father or got off on the conflict between the two men.
shareI think. also perhaps, that Lenny had taken his con about as far as he could and was in a crowd of people who saw through him as a phony instinctively (even the kids a the wedding reception felt awkward around him).
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That's a good "other angle" and I will certainly take it.
The family and guests of Wife Number One were probably nice, "regular folks," but with Kelly and her rich banker dad and THEIR friends, Lenny would be exposed to a lot of snobbish scrutiny. Its one reason he ENDS UP WITH only the kids for company.
I suppose we could add this to the "possible" list: Eddie Albert decided to let Shepard go through with the wedding because he knows it will never last...
He successfully wore her down. That's why she consented to marry him.
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That he did. I think it is a surprising moment for him - for us, for the audience in general -- when Kelly says "Hey, give a girl a chance." Its a clue that she may be interested in something more real, after all.
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Also, there's the possibility that she married him to piss off her father or got off on the conflict between the two men.
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Daddy's girl....
"I suppose we could add this to the "possible" list: Eddie Albert decided to let Shepard go through with the wedding because he knows it will never last..."
Once the inevitable collapse of the marriage happens, Daddy can reassert his dominant role over his daughter all the more. Folks like Daddy Corcoran are shrewd and cunning people who "eat determination for breakfast", as he says.
"I suppose we could add this to the "possible" list: Eddie Albert decided to let Shepard go through with the wedding because he knows it will never last..."
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Once the inevitable collapse of the marriage happens, Daddy can reassert his dominant role over his daughter all the more. Folks like Daddy Corcoran are shrewd and cunning people
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Yes, I think this is entirely possible. The movie is pitched rather "outlandish" and satiric, but in real life, Daddy would consider his options and his knowledge of his own daughter. Plus: he could probably spend as long as it takes to humiliate Lenny at future gatherings.
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who "eat determination for breakfast", as he says.
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"You think you're determined?! You're looking at a BRICK WALL."
I also like how he tries to bribe Lenny and referencing Lenny's job in sporting goods, "that buys a lot of bats and balls.."
Eddie Albert had spent much of the 60's as a straight man on "Green Acres," but in the 70's, he rather blossomed into tough, villainous roles. "The Heartbreak Kid" is the least villainous of them. He was a killer on Columbo(a General Patton military type), a sadistic prison warden versus Burt Reynolds in The Longest Yard, and again with Burt(and for the same director, Robert Aldrich), a corrupt rich lawyer who sometimes rents Burt's call girl girlfriend(Catherine Denueve) in Hustle.
Older age had whitened Albert's hair and given him some facial creases, but he was still formidable and he used this to great comic effect in "The Heartbreak Kid." Got an Oscar nomination for 1972.
"Yes, I think this is entirely possible. The movie is pitched rather "outlandish" and satiric, but in real life, Daddy would consider his options and his knowledge of his own daughter. Plus: he could probably spend as long as it takes to humiliate Lenny at future gatherings."
I think the interpretation that Lenny is "bored" - a dog who had finally caught the car - is a misreading of the finale. He isn't merely bored of his new bride, nor is he in control of anything. Rather, he is crushed and defeated, caught in his own cycle of lies, in a crowd that sees him exactly for the charlatan that he is. I think he has nowhere left to climb either - unless Daddy makes him a Congressman (LOL). As Bob Dylan said in the song "Idiot Wind": "You'll find out when you reach the top you're on the bottom". Not quite as bleak as the end of Barry Lyndon - he still has a functioning pair of legs and his youth (I assume the character was meant to be younger than the actor playing him) - but it's in the same ballpark. Now that I think of it, The Heartbreak Kid is rather a throwback to the "Cad Makes Good" picaresque novels of the 18th Century.
Lol. You must have not gone out much! It's amazing how people can relate and be attracted to each other when the odds seem against the relationship.
The best way to get laid is by not seeing it as the goal of any relationship.
That's the thing. There's nothing about his personality or anything he does that would explain why she'd even consider any kind of relationship with him. The way he acts would be off putting.
I look at it as kind of a fantasy. She's the kind of woman you might see while on vacation somewhere and dream about, but you know getting together with her is impossible. In this movie, Groden's charcter somehow pulls it off.