Heartbreakers

Heartbreakers (2001)
MGM Home Entertainment
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta, Gene Hackman
Extras: Commentary Track, Deleted Scenes, Documentaries, Trailer
Rating:

In the vein of ’Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, ’ is a hilarious comedy about a duo of con artists making a living by marrying and then disposing of wealthy members of society. Max (Sigourney Weaver) and her daughter Page (Jennifer Love Hewitt) have the perfect routine. One of them lures and marries a millionaire, and immediately following the wedding, the other one seduces the new husband, ensuring he’s getting caught in flagranti to allow for a clean and quick divorce. But problems arise when they can’t agree on a new victim, and when their past begins to catch up with them. The result is a riotous cat and mouse game.

MGM Home Entertainment presents ’Heartbreakers’ in an anamorphic widescreen transfer on this release that is very clean and virtually free of defects. The transfer exhibits a good level of detail and boasts strong colors, which help immensely to bring to life the beautiful production design of the film with its beautiful upper-crust locations. Without breaking up, the blacks and shadows of the transfer paint a solid image with plenty of visual depth, which further helps rooting the presentation. Combined with the good contrast, the result is a very naturally looking film with great visuals that is free of compression artifacts.

The audio on the DVD is presented as a 5.1 Dolby digital mix in English, French and Spanish. The track is very active and makes good use of the surround channels. While it is used very frequently to enhance the ambience, occasionally it will be used to full effect as the going gets tougher on the screen. The frequency response is very natural with deep basses and crystal clear high ends that are free of distortion. The release also contains an engaging commentary track featuring director David Mirkin as well as his stars Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt. The track is informative and entertaining, but plays mostly on the light side without relaying much technical information.

A series of deleted scenes – some of the good and funny, others not so much – and two featurettes can also be found on the disc, covering various aspects of the production.

’Heartbreakers’ may feel a bit padded and it is not quite as outrageously funny as ’Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,’ but still it is a highly entertaining and fun experience that will give you some really good laughs.