'Heartbreakers' - A funny con game

Men don't have a lock on being scoundrels or dirty and rotten for that matter.

 At least that's what Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt are determined to prove in the riotously funny slapstick comedy Heartbreakers.


 Weaver and Hewitt play a mother and daughter who have a created a rather effective and profitable con game.

 Mama Maxine (Weaver) woos a wealthy bachelor getting him to marry her.

 She pretends to get drunk at the wedding and passes out so the marriage cannot be consummated that evening. The next morning she is suffering a painful hangover.

 Meanwhile, Page (Hewitt) has ingratiated herself into the employ of the unsuspecting victim. The morning after the wedding, when the poor, frustrated groom is at his most vulnerable, Page turns on her lethal charms and Maxine catches hubby and employee in a compromising situation.

 A fast divorce. A big settlement and it's off to find another poor schmuck.

 Half the fun of Heartbreakers is watching the pair of tarantulas spin their web and stalk their prey because the audience is in on the game and are rooting for the grifters.

 The first victim is Vinny (Ray Liotta), a New Jersey mobster who turns new cars into used ones for quick sale.

 The second mark is William B. Tensy (Gene Hackman), a multimillionaire tobacco tycoon who couldn't be more physically or emotionally hideous.

 Hackman is not about to be upstaged by Weaver's cleavage or Hewitt's miniskirts.

 All his wheezing, coughing, spitting and grinning steals focus from even the most enticing and revealing outfits into which Weaver and Hewitt pour, squeeze and shimmy themselves.

 While mama is picking tobacco, Page decides to try a con of her own. She stumbles on a sweet beach bum (Jason Lee) who has inherited a bar worth $3 million.

 In the one twist that only serves to bog down the film, Page falls in love, which is the cardinal sin for a grifter.

 Director David Mirkin hasn't learned that audiences can get too much of a good thing. The first 80 minutes of Heartbreakers is a fast-paced, well-timed farce which cries out to be wrapped up in an all-stops-out 20-minute finale.

 What we get is 40 minutes of mediocre slapstick a bit too reminiscent of Weekend At Bernie's that's more silly than hilarious, coupled with a rather maudlin, predictable conclusion to the budding romance.

 Fortunately, Liotta makes a return visit to create some much needed pandemonium. (More on: The Heartbreakers).