Heartbreakers

Mom and daughter have a sure-fire scam for rich men: mom (Sigourney Weaver) marries them, daughter (Jennifer Love Hewitt) seduces them, then they split mom’s divorce settlement. Now they’re working on a decrepit old tobacco billionaire (a hilariously repulsive Gene Hackman), but the daughter’s mind doesn’t seem to be on her work; could she be falling for that handsome young bartender she just met (Jason Lee)? The script (by Robert Dunn, Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur) is careless and slapdash, telegraphing its “surprise” twists far in advance; we’re always ahead of the characters, a fatal flaw in a con-game movie like this. The film gets by on star power, particularly on Sigourney Weaver’s amazing flair for comedy. Casting Hewitt as her daughter was an inspiration; they have the same swagger, the same sardonic glint. Hackman never looked worse—blotchy skin, brown teeth—an antidote to all those years when Hollywood made smoking look glamorous.