MovieChat Forums > The Heartbreak Kid (1972) Discussion > Wow what a whiny a*s main character.

Wow what a whiny a*s main character.

posted 11 years ago by JohnM_99
5 replies | jump to latest

Especially the part where he screams "I just gave a half of my life away!!" and other extremely whiny stuff to Kelly (while it's completely by his own volition that he got a divorce because he just couldn't stand his wife). And what a gigantic drama-queen to scream that's the HALF of your life.

Can't imagine anybody like Kelly going for such a stereo-typical whiny jewish guy like him, but I guess this is an ultimate jew-conquiring-shiksa fantasy by Neil Simon?

[–] balboa76 11 years ago

Congratulations! You're one of the few that got the movie perfectly, most of the misfits on these boards believe that Leonard in the final moments of the film is thinking about going back to that nightmare of a first wife. The whole average looking, and that's being kind lol Jewish guy with a bs job that pays nothing, picking up on a gorgeous country club society wasp, is pure science fiction, this guy wouldn't get to first base in the real world, pure comedy fiction, but that's what makes for a great Neil Simon comedy.

[–] lakealice 10 years ago

Actually, I know a parallel in real life. Decades ago, a friend of mine, a WASP from an old, well-to-do New England family, married a Jewish fellow from Brooklyn. She gradually learned that he hated his Jewishness and was ashamed of his Brooklyn relatives and was trying to get into a different class of society that he wanted to be part of. She married him because she was young and was attracted to what she saw as an "exotic" background, and she didn't foresee that they wouldn't have much in common in the future. Needless to say, the marriage didn't last, but in real life that is a tragedy, not a comedy.
I think the Neil Simon WASP shiksa fantasy is real, but he jokes about it. However, at the end Simon shows his feeling about it-- the WASP wedding guests are polite to Lenny at first, but after a while he is left alone, abandoned by the guests. He had tried to bluff his way through, but he doesn't really fit in, and he will have a hard road ahead.

[–] mdonln 9 years ago

balboa76 says > he whole average looking, and that's being kind lol Jewish guy with a bs job that pays nothing, picking up on a gorgeous country club society wasp, is pure science fiction, this guy wouldn't get to first base in the real world, pure comedy fiction, but that's what makes for a great Neil Simon comedy.

At first I felt this might be the point of the movie. I kept wondering when Lenny was going to get it that he could never get a girl like Kelly but he does. I think Lenny could figure out how to get whatever he wanted.

I don't think he would have ever pursued Kelly but she came on to him; probably out of boredom, to try to attract a guy she'd never go for, or to shock her parents. She was having her fun but when he actually did leave his wife to come after her and the things he did once he arrived won her over.

I think the contrast between the women is more to show how it wasn't Lila who drove him away. He lost interest in Kelly just as quickly, if not quicker, than he had in Lila. But I must admit, I found Lila unbearably annoying.

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

[–] Iconoclast321 (386) 4 years ago

Lila is annoying because they are so ill-suited. With someone who is more like her (expressive, sensual, emotional), she might get along just fine and not annoy at all. Hopefully that is what happened for her.

[–] harveythepooka 9 years ago

I haven't seen the movie, so maybe I shouldn't be commenting. But is the main character supposed to be likable at all? He immediately tries to cheat on his wife just because it's not all rainbows and orgasms while they are still on their honeymoon? He didn't even try to make it work and was a jerk to her even if she didn't know who to eat egg salad properly. Just to get into a relationship with another woman probably as equally doomed to failure as the 1st.