Jenifer Love Hewitt, Jeffrey Jones and Sigourney Weaver in "Heartbreakers."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt Director: David Mirkin Rated: PG-13, with suggestive innuendo Length: 123 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(March 23, 2001) -- Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt are conniving mother-daughter babes in Heartbreakers. What most people would call bunco, these women call "bonding."

Distaff variations of the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Maxine and Page seduce wealthy men into marriages and then con them out of their millions only moments after they've stepped from the altar.

Their victims include a low-level mobster and chop-shop operator from New Jersey named Vinny (Ray Liotta) and coughing, hacking tobacco industry tycoon William B. Tensy (Gene Hackman) who has one foot in the grave from being his firm's best customer.

The story opens with mother and daughter hoodwinking Vinny. Only hours after their marriage, mother Maxine feigns illness to avoid intimacy. Vinny runs to his chop shop to check business, only to be seduced by Page, pretending to be his sexy new secretary.

Of course, Maxine catches the infidelity, and a lucrative divorce settlement is quickly arranged. Then mother and daughter head south to Palm Beach, where they target tycoon Tensy.

With that con underway, daughter Page tries a side hustle, seducing an amiable beach saloon operator (Jason Lee) when she learns his property is worth $3 million. But the usually callous and cynical Page is shocked to discover she's falling in love. And that, of course, becomes a threat to Mom.

Heartbreakers is the sophomore effort of director David Mirkin. He previously created the wacky and mildly amusing Romy and Michele's High School Reunion after a decade of writing and producing such top-shelf TV comedy as Newhart and The Simpsons.

Mirkin has clearly encouraged his cast to go all-out. His veterans thrive in a comic world of heightened slapstick, whether it's Hackman coughing so hard he falls down, Weaver getting out of a jam by singing Back in the U.S.S.R. on stage with a balalaika orchestra or Liotta struggling with a recalcitrant bride.

Hewitt has fewer comic opportunities. She mostly contributes substantial sexiness and a bit of ingenue romance with the likable Lee.

A key to a successful con, of course, is timing: Get in quick and get out. And though Heartbreakers is undeniably funny -- in the broad sense -- the film ignores that rule, overstays its welcome and sags in the extended finale.

Most comic filmmakers follow Woody Allen's 90-minute rule. You can probably count on your fingers the classic comedies with enough oomph to sustain a two-hour running time, and this isn't one.