Alternate Ending(s)?


I read another long thread on this board about the film's ending (which is somewhat ambiguous and open to interpretation). My take on the conclusion was the same as the poster who felt that Lenny was one of those personalities who wants what he can't have. He's thrilled by the challenge of a seemingly unobtainable goal, but once he's obtained it, the thrill is gone. At what should have been his pinnacle moment of triumph, he finds himself sitting on a couch with a couple of kids - and they're just as bored & unconvinced by the bull$hit he's spouting as he is. Sure he's got his victory, but it's a hollow one. And no, I don't think he's contemplating a return to Lila at the end; I get the feeling he's wondering if he can get ANY satisfaction from his life.

However, when The Heartbreak Kid was first released in 1972, there were stories in the media about the ending and how it had been a point of contention - perhaps between the studio and the filmmakers, or simply as a result of less-than-successful sneak previews. But I'd read the film had alternate endings, one of which centered on Lenny learning something "surprising" about his new wife Kelly. I came here to find out if anyone else was aware of alternate endings that had been written and/or shot for the film.

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Read the Friedman story it was based on if you want an alternate ending. http://tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/954/a-change-of-pla n

(I don't know why it is showing with a space in the last word "plan" of the url. I tried to fix it but it won't let me.)

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I don't remember hearing about any alternate endings. I think the ending I saw fits the story.

Lenny is the kind of person who's never really satisfied. His passion is in the hunt. He needs a challenge that he can't easily or fully obtain. He needs a wife who has her own life and who, in some ways, remains unavailable to him.

The trait of never being satisfied is common in both men and women; it's probably the reason a lot of people fail to find happiness. They're always reaching for something they can never really put their hands on and, in the process, they fail to appreciate the things they already have. When I say things, I'm referring to people as well.


Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]

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Here's how Turner Classic Movie's website describes the alternate ending -

There were some complaints about the abrupt ending. May had filmed an extended coda in which Grodin and Shepherd sail off on their own honeymoon, only for Grodin to start becoming irritated by his new wife's habits all over again, but for some reason this sequence was discarded.

We'd have to hear from Elaine May to discover the definitive reason for this scene's removal, but she may have felt the point about Lenny's inability to find satisfaction in ANY relationship was made clearly enough in the sequence where he's talking to the kids.

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?id=1054745%7C1054785

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