MovieChat Forums > The Heartbreak Kid (1972) Discussion > Thoughts after another viewing

Thoughts after another viewing

posted 13 years ago by deliaw1946
5 replies | jump to latest

I used to drive my husband crazy, always wondering what happened after a movie was over. He'd say "It's a movie, it's over, there's nothing more!" This started when I was crying my eyes out at the end of "The Sandpiper" asking "will they ever get back together?" Thoughts on Lenny and Kelly: he was a total jerk, flirting with another woman on honeymoon, calling her home state "a dumb place," making fun of Lila's name (remember on the patio?)his smarminess with the dad. Also, he was completely delusional, thinking Kelly loved him after a couple silly flirtations. "The look in your eyes is good enough for me." Anyway, as another poster said a while back, and I agree - I think at the end, he was already bored, looking forward to the next "girl I've been waiting for my whole life" or even missing sweet, dim-bulb Lila, or all three. Cannot see it lasting for very long at all.

[–] taylorje 11 years ago

If he was thinking of Lila at the end, it was probably because the same two songs were played at both wedding receptions, "Close to You" and "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke." He may have felt a sudden surge of guilt, but I don't think their marriage would have lasted even if he hadn't met Kelly. He knew the first day that he'd made a mistake, evidenced by his cruel remark that she had a "god-awful voice". You could see her hurt look for just a second, then she laughed it off.

I also thought he was beginning to have regrets at the end of the movie. Sort of like he was thinking "Now what?"

[–] TracesOfLove 10 years ago

The way I saw the ending was that now, he is Lila. Everything he saw in Lila he now portrays. It's hinted in his "40 or 50 years". What he liked in Lila at first was an attractive woman, who was just attractive enough, who worshiped him. This gave him great self esteem and he thought he was going to have it all based on his upbringing. Once he got her, being on a pedestal wasn't all it's cracked up to be. Then he meets Kelly and now has someone to put on a pedestal. In order to obtain her he does everything he can and ultimately succeeds. But how long will it be until Kelly starts looking at Lenny eating an egg salad sandwich?

It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind.

[–] sonomagirl2120 10 years ago

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Kelly would soon be up to having more adventures while Lenny is holed up in some hotel room with the flu or sunburn. Kelly will be bored and flirting with some schmo at a bar or pool. She did not seem the type of person to settle for one guy for very long.

[–] mdonln 9 years ago

I didn't get the impression Lenny was becoming Lila. I think the way he dismissed Kelly at the wedding showed he was still Lenny and Kelly was taking on the Lila role. He seemed to already be over her. He preferred to spend his time with any and everyone other than her; the girl he had 'waited his whole life for...'

I think he had a certain image of what his life would be like once he was with that special girl he could never get but it turns out his life was pretty much the same with her as it had been with the run-of-the-mill girl he had before. He suffers from 'magical thinking'. If only this then that kind of thinking.

It's a very human trait I guess. We all probably have something we would love to attain and think reaching that goal or getting that thing, whatever it may be, will bring immeasurable happiness. What really happens, according to all studies, is we have a momentary high then settle back down to wherever we were before in terms of happiness and contentment. Some cases, naturally, are more extreme than others.

In Lenny's case, the difference between Lila and Kelly illustrates that it's not the women that matter. Lenny's discontent is really with himself. He keeps looking for something outside himself to fill some deep internal void. The fact that Kelly will likely get a lot of attention from other men, welcomed or not, will probably work to her marriage's benefit. If Lenny feels he could lose her and feels he has to fight to keep her, it may give him the challenge he needs. Every little victory will feed his ego and make him feel worthy for a time.

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

[–] Iconoclast321 (386) 4 years ago

Agreed. Kelly doesn't become Lenny, she becomes Lila. And Lenny stays Lenny. That's why the alternate ending (acc. to other commenters) was of Lenny becoming irritated with Kelly just like he did with Lila.