Film

The Heartbreak Kid

Name: The Heartbreak Kid
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Released: 1972
Cast: Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd, Jeannie Berlin, Eddie Albert, Audra Lindley

Other titles called The Heartbreak Kid: the 2007 film.

A 1972 Elaine May comedy about a man who abandons his bride mid-honeymoon for another woman. Sharp-edged and deeply uncomfortable, it's fascinated by male weakness and entitlement rather than forgiving it. Funny in ways that sting. For anyone who likes their comedies to have teeth and their characters to be genuinely unlikeable.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy comedies that find the squirm in a bad decision, where the humour comes from a man talking himself deeper into trouble with a straight face and a wandering eye.

Skip it if you want likeable leads and a warm glow; the protagonist is selfish and the bruising, deliberately uncomfortable tone may leave you wincing more than laughing.

What it asks of you: It runs a brisk 105 minutes and stays in its awkward, sun-bleached rhythm, asking you to sit with discomfort rather than be rescued from it by the plot.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

After Hours1985

Scorsese's fever dream about a man's night spiralling into chaos. Like Heartbreak Kid, it's vicious about male desperation and finds comedy in total social humiliation. Merciless and strangely beautiful.

But Surreal and increasingly nightmarish. It doesn't feel like a traditional comedy, and the tone shift will lose some viewers.

A Serious Man2009

Coen Brothers dissection of a man's life falling apart while he grasps at control. Same DNA as Heartbreak Kid: darkly funny, morally uncertain, refusing to let the protagonist off easy.

But Deliberately frustrating and oblique. If you want tidy resolutions or sympathetic characters, this will aggravate you.

Bitter Lake2015

Sardonic comedy about a man leaving his wife for his mistress, told without sentiment or judgment. Shares Heartbreak Kid's fascination with male infidelity as something both ridiculous and ruinous.

But Quietly bleak and small in scale. Not many laughs; mostly just the discomfort of watching people make terrible choices.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Heartbreak Kid

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Scenes from a Marriage2021

Both are about the moment someone realises they've made a mistake with a person, and both refuse to judge that realisation as evil—just human and inevitable.

Bergman's brutal dissection of a marriage across nine scenes. Like Heartbreak Kid, it's fascinated by the distance between what people want and what they can accept. Extraordinarily intimate and unsparing about desire.

But Miniseries format, Swedish sensibility, no conventional plot. It's a chamber piece about emotional erosion, which requires patience and emotional availability.

Annie Hall1977

Woody Allen dissecting a doomed relationship with intelligence and genuine pain. Like Heartbreak Kid, it's romantic and anti-romantic at once, funny because it tells the truth.

But Very New York, very interior. If Allen's neurosis doesn't charm you, nothing here will convert you.

The Graduate1967

A young man seduced by an older woman, then pursues her daughter. Like Heartbreak Kid, it's about male confusion disguised as romance, and it's funny about things that shouldn't be.

But The third act feels uncertain, and the ending has dated awkwardly. Some find it smug or incomplete.

Klute1971

A detective thriller that's really about a woman who won't be saved and a man who can't accept that. Sharp, unglamorous, uncomfortable in ways that matter.

But A thriller first, not a comedy. The pace is slow and the ending is ambiguous. Some will want more plot.

Five Easy Pieces1970

Jack Nicholson as a man running from his life and his past. Shares Heartbreak Kid's interest in male selfishness and the comedy of people behaving badly in small ways.

But Episodic and meandering. Not every scene lands, and the tone can feel uneven.

Shampoo1975

Warren Beatty as a hairdresser juggling women and politics in 1970s LA. Cynical, sexy, and deeply funny about male ego and the women who tolerate it.

But Very much a product of its era. The sexual politics have aged in ways that might feel dated or uncomfortable.

The King of Comedy1982

Scorsese and De Niro exploring obsession and entitlement. Dark and cringe-inducing in ways that anticipate how comedy would become uncomfortable.

But Genuinely disturbing. The humour comes from a place of alienation that can exhaust rather than entertain.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being1988

Both treat infidelity not as a plot point but as a window into how people actually work—the gap between the life we choose and the life we want.

Kundera adapted into cinema: a man torn between a wife and a mistress, but treated as a philosophical problem rather than a moral one. Like Heartbreak Kid, it's interested in desire as something that doesn't care about fairness.

But Heavy on voiceover and interior life. Based on a notoriously un-adaptable novel, and it shows. Can feel more like an essay than a story.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being poster

Stardust Memories1980

Both are about a man looking back at his choices with no clear moral reckoning, using comedy to avoid confronting what he actually did.

Fellini's '8½' but filtered through Woody Allen—a man on a train reviewing his romantic failures and creative compromises. Shares Heartbreak Kid's interest in how men construct narratives around their own selfishness.

But Formally chaotic, deliberately shapeless, and repetitive by design. It's about exhaustion and regret, not plot. Most people find it self-indulgent or impenetrable.