Adapted from the Neil Simon-scripted, Elaine May-directed original (which was based on a short story by Bruce Jay Friedman), The Heartbreak Kid is about a guy who heads off on his honeymoon and proceeds to fall in love - with a woman who is not his bride. In the original, with Charles Grodin and Jeannie Berlin (May's daughter) as the newlyweds, and Cybill Shepherd as the girl of Eddie's dreams, the cultural disconnect between New York Jews and all-American WASPs provided an angsty backdrop for the mixed-up romance.
Writing/directing siblings Bobby and Peter Farrelly have jettisoned all that, relocating things to the West Coast and seemingly giving sad-sack bachelor Eddie the ideal woman right off the bat. Lila (the Cameron Diaz-ish Malin Akerman) is a leggy blond environmental researcher. They meet, they court, vows are recited, and off they go to Mexico, wailing merrily to the car radio. Eddie, who owns a sporting-goods store, can't believe his luck.
And, uh-oh, the first glimmers that the girl of his dreams might really be a nightmare begin to show. "It's like the moment we got married a switch went off," Eddie says, not exactly sure what he's doing with the heavily-in-debt, jobless, sex-crazed ex-cokehead he's sharing his honeymoon suite with.
And so, when Lila sunburns herself into a blistering crisp and goes off to convalesce in her room, Eddie wanders out and meets Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), a wisecracking Oxford, Miss., lacrosse coach, at the resort for a family reunion. One thing leads to another - and misleads to another - as Eddie and Miranda hit it off, but Eddie can't quite get out the important piece of information that he's here on his honeymoon.
