Heartburn

You got (the now late) Mike Nichols, you got Streep, you got Nicholson, you got Nora Ephron adapting her own semi-menoir about her relationship with Carl Bernstein. Given the pedigree behind everything involved with the film - and, for me, I'm a sucker for a good infidelity drama - it's only a shame this isn't, you know, one of the top films of the 80's. It doesn't quite get there, but it's not for lack of trying on anyone's part. Heartburn is an entertaining picture, even as it doesn't quite move to a beat of a fast drummer, nor does it have very easy solutions to its dramatic conflicts. But that's a good thing here; Nichols and Ephron know this story has people who can't resolve or move on too easily, despite all signs pointing in a direction the audience can read.

It's basically this: girl and boy meet, boy marries girl - though girl doesn't really want to marry exactly, and one of the funnier set pieces shows Rachel stewing about in the bedroom adjacent to the wedding as friends and family come to try and support (sort of) this whole union - girl and boy find a real 'fixer-upper' house, girl is going to have boy's baby, things are happy... and then suspicion creeps in for the girl. A lot of this is not very much 'plot' driven, though Nichols knows how to tell his story.

If there's anything 'off' it might be that the pacing is a little lackadaisical. Not quite the same as 'slow' exactly; you just have to be keyed in to the rhythm that's going on here. The filmmakers here are emphasizing character more. You get scenes, sometimes very funny, like when Mark just breaks out into a goofy song following the news that he's having a baby... and then breaks out into song again the next morning to wake up Rachel. A lot of the movie is more funny in a sly, observational way. It's not as 'LOL' type of funny as work Ephron was to do after this, and some might say like those other movies it's a little "chick" centric. I can't say if it can be so easily pegged, albeit there are piffy bits like Rachel watching the TV and getting messages about the infidelities going on.

Nichols knows this material needs the help of its actors, and of course he has two of the best... ever, really. The charisma and combination just works, there's no doubt about that. And there's both real comedy and real drama to work on (probably more drama than comedy). And sometimes things happen in the movie that seem to be more incidental than anything to push it forward - i.e. Kevin Spacey's debut as a thief - but even this ends up kind of playing a part in the story, at a key moment, near the end. The actors make all these beats very, painfully, awkwardly, sadly and bittersweet-like real. When Rachel suddenly realizes that moment where things are "wrong" in a hair salon, the way it comes to her, how Nichols moves the camera (and, one of his gifts, knowing when NOT to cut), and how she looks and she goes from 0 to 60... it's wonderful stuff.

Why not great? Maybe a little too loose in parts, and the Carly Simon score is grating after a while and dates the movie (the songs too). But all in all, Heartburn is a very good movie about this relationship and its peaks and valleys, but also about the nature of indecision, and how something as seemingly clear-cut as 'stay with your husband - or go' is a real, concrete, existential dilemma. Underrated, really.

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.

"Heartburn" is a movie based on the book and subsequent screenplay by Nora Ephron. While names were changed in order to avoid lawsuits, the story is about her marriage to famed Washington Post writer Carl Bernstein...and how he eventually destroyed the marriage through his infidelity. Clearly this is a great example of a wronged wife getting her revenge.

The story begins when Mark and Rachel (Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep) meeting. Soon they both marry and things seem swell. They have a child and another's on the way when she discovers he's cheating on her. Not surprisingly, the marriage cannot withstand this and the film is about this process of discovery, divorce and, eventually, life going on from there.

The film's star is Streep....and she's in the lion's share of the movie. Nicholson is definitely a secondary character in the story. Together, you have two very fine actors...with capable support from quite a few familiar character actors, such as Steven Hill, Stockard Channing, Jeff Daniels, Catherine O'Hara and quite a few others. It's a very high quality production with lovely acting and is well written. My only complaint, and it's not the film's fault, but the story is depressing and hard to watch. It's definitely a movie to watch with some Kleenex nearby. Well worth seeing if a bit unpleasant. And, perhaps all the more unpleasant because it's mostly true.

By the way, the theme song to this film received TONS of airtime back in the 80s. I remember how overplayed it was on the radio. Sadly, it's also way overplayed in the film...with clips of it being used and re-used and re-used repeatedly. It got to the point where I felt like screaming because it was played way too much.

This film is based on Nora Ephron's "novel". we're told, but the novel was a largely biographical depiction of her failed marriage to Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post journalist famous for his exposure of the Watergate scandal which brought down President Nixon,,a marriage which ended in divorce as a result of his long affair with a fellow journalist. The Carl Bernstein character, Mark Forman, is played by Jack Nicholson with his usual devilish, eyebrow-twitching, grinning charm but the film is carried by Meryl Streep as his long-suffering wife, whose character, writer Rachel Samstadt, seems to age without recourse to added lines or makeup or any of the usual Hollywood trickery but purely by a change of body-language and a certain implied physical heaviness. The film is well-served by its supporting players as well as its principals, notably Stockard Channing and Jeff Daniels. It's both moving and very funny and the fact that their first child, Annie, is played by Streep's real-life daughter makes the mother/child interaction natural and utterly charming.

The acting is superb by the whole cast and what could've become an over-dramatic film has wonderful moments of humor that works so well. Although the story is quite sad in parts the film is balanced out by a lot of humor. I found myself laughing out loud at this film a lot. Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson are brilliant, and Carly Simon wrote the soundtrack which is also great. It is still well worth watching.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

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.