Heartburn

Let's face it, these aren't the two most likable people on the planet, but that's only because writer Nora Ephron may have been a little too hard on herself. (Actually, she's hard on most everyone in this.) We care about this relationship, and the performances ofthe excellent cast make it intriguing at first, but viewers are just as likely to grow impatient with these characters as they do with each other. It's worth seeing, but a hard film to love.

Now, some words about the Carly Simon song, "Coming Around Again." I heard the song before I saw the movie and it no doubt affected my viewing of it. So many movies seem to just tack on any old song at the end credits, but this song really captures the essence of love and marriage and brings out all the emotions of a great film scene in merely a few minutes. I cannot believe the overblown "Take My Breath Away" from "Top Gun" (also overblown) won the 1986 Oscar for Best Original Song, and "Coming Around Again" was not even nominated! Perhaps this is why Carly Simon won her Oscar for "Let the River Run" two years later, to make up for this gross omission. (She would also duet with Streep during the end credits of "Marvin's Room"--an even better film.) The song alone is reason enough to see "Heartburn".

Like a good relationship that goes sour, "Heartburn" is impossible to love but hard to write off entirely. Despite its fine cast and script by Nora Ephron, the film is disjointed and, ultimately, dishonest.

Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson play two Washington journalists who meet at a wedding, and — seemingly in the next scene — are saying their own vows. The developments that follow in their relationship are just as abrupt and just as believable. The rapid-fire pace of their many separations and reconciliations stretches credibility to the limit, and it's hard to generate any interest in these characters when it was never clear what drew them together in the first place.

Streep does a fine job as magazine writer Rachel, but Nicholson's cad is all too familiar in his role of Mark, the womanizing columnist. Supporting players Stockard Channing, Maureen Stapleton, Jeff Daniels and Kevin Spacey, while uniformly excellent, seem underutilized and distract from the main plot.

"Heartburn" is worth watching, if only for its strong cast, but it's as memorable as leftover lasagna.

Heartburn could have been, should have been, so much better. It had all the ingredients for greatness, with Mike Nichols, Nora Ephron, Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, a great supporting cast, Nestor Almendros as cinematographer and good music built around some fine Carly Simon songs. And, it's a juicy true-life story based on Nora Ephron's marriage to Carl Bernstein. But Ephron's screenplay lets us down. The film is usually billed as a romantic comedy, and there are some gently poignant, quasi-comic moments. But it is mostly a drama, a sour take on an unhappy marriage. And parts are dull and slow. It was a genuine pleasure to see some great acting from Nicholson and Streep, but that wasn't enough to make their characters interesting nor to save the film.

Just to watch Streep and Nicholson together in a movie is good enough for me. A lot of the scenes seemed kinda improvised. They're crazy good together. I always wondered why they weren't in more movies together. Who knows, maybe they didn't like each other very much in real life. Also, Nicholson always seems to be dancing between genius and insanity. Streep's more the straight-forward type. At least to me.

Nora Ephron who wrote this and the supposed autobiographical novel it's based on, wasn't known for immense depth, but for romance. I think every girl or woman who grew up before the start of this century is familiar with her work (Sleepless In Seattle, When Harry Met Sally etc.).

6.6/10 just for the main leads.

It is some years since I saw this film, but I definitely thought at the time it was vastly under-rated, and now that I have seen the voter's scores for this, I am surprised all over again. Obviously, I have to log off and go to the video store to refresh my memory, but: the story was great, the song Joni Mitchell contributed was one of her all-time bests, and how could Meryl Streep ever be in anything that wasn't worthwhile? By the way, the book was better, punctuated with recipes. It is an autobiographical tale, which bursts the balloon of the Watergate heroes and is definitely one of the most entertaining and realistic of the cinematic versions of life and love.