Taglines: They will love you for richer. And leave you for poorer.
Max and Page Conners (Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt) are a mother-daughter con artist team. When the film opens, the Conners are finishing a con on Dean Cumanno (Ray Liotta), an auto-body shop owner and small-time crook. The con, which the Conners have played many times before on other men, involves Max marrying Dean, passing out on their wedding night to avoid consummating the marriage, and then Page (posing as Dean’s secretary) luring Dean into a compromising position to justify Max’s immediate divorce and hefty settlement. The con is a success.
Page declares that she wants to go solo. Max initially relents, but when they go to the bank to split their earnings, they’re confronted by an IRS agent (Anne Bancroft) who declares that they owe the government a considerable sum on top of the rest of their savings, which have already been seized. Page reluctantly agrees to work one last con with Max in Palm Beach, to get enough money to pay off the IRS and set Page up to work on her own. For their target, they choose widower William B. Tensy (Gene Hackman), a tobacco baron who is addicted to his own product.
While working the main con with Tensy, Page attempts a side con without her mother’s knowledge. Page targets beachfront bartender Jack (Jason Lee), who is worth $3 million, but develops genuine feelings for him. Max learns of the side con and tells Page to break the relationship off, which Page does reluctantly.
Tensy proposes to Max ahead of schedule, but before they can get married, he accidentally chokes and dies while trying to initiate sex with Max. While Max and Page are deciding what to do with the body, Dean arrives, having tracked Max down to apologize and propose to her again. Dean figures out that Max and Page conned him, and threatens to call the authorities.
Max offers to return Dean’s divorce settlement money if he’ll help them make Tensy’s death look like an accident. Max tells Page that their money wasn’t really taken by the IRS; the agent was Max’s mentor, Barbara, who agreed to help prevent Page from leaving. However, when Max, Page and Dean go to the bank, the money really has gone, having been liquidated in an act of betrayal by Barbara.
Heartbreakers is a 2001 caper-romantic comedy film directed by David Mirkin. It stars Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee, and Gene Hackman. Weaver was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for her performance in the film. The plot revolves around an elaborate con set up by a mother-daughter team to swindle wealthy men out of their money, and what happens during their “last” con together.
The film had been in the works for quite a long time. Originally, Ang Lee was set to direct with Anjelica Huston and Alicia Silverstone playing the roles of “Max” and “Page”. However, due to the long pre-production stage, both actresses had to bow out of the film due to scheduling conflicts. In 1999, it was then announced that Huston and Cameron Diaz were set to play the two leading roles, with Doug Liman directing but then Liman backed out of the project, creating quite a long time frame to find a new director.
Huston and Diaz both had to bow out as well. Cher became attached and brought in David Mirkin to direct and rewrite the script. Jennifer Aniston also became attached at this time. Cher then dropped out to do a world tour for her unexpected #1 hit album Believe and the mother/daughter roles went to Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt. R&B singers Whitney Houston and Brandy Norwood were briefly considered for the leading mother/daughter roles. Norwood’s touring schedules did not allow her to commit to the film and Houston’s drug battle prevented her from working at the time.
Filming took place from April 24, 2000 and ended on August 1, 2000. The film was set in Palm Beach, Florida (specifically the Breakers Hotel); according to the DVD commentary by director David Mirkin, only a few external shots were actually shot in Palm Beach, with the rest utilizing Los Angeles locations as stand-ins. The film contains several references to The Beatles, including Sigourney Weaver singing a Russian folk version of “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and the use of John Lennon’s “Oh My Love” in several key scenes.
Heartbreakers (2001)
Directed by: David Mirkin
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee, Gene Hackman, Anne Bancroft, Jeffrey Jones, Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis, Nora Dunn
Screenplay by: Robert Dunn, Paul Guay, Stephen Mazur
Production Design by: Lilly Kilvert
Cinematography by: Dean Semler
Film Editing by: William Steinkamp
Costume Design by: Gary Jones
Set Decoration by: Kathy Lucas
Art Direction by: John Warnke
Music by: John Debney, Danny Elfmah
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sex-related content including dialogue.
Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release Date: March 23, 2001
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