In the 1972 classic “The Heartbreak Kid,” gifted comic actor Charles Grodin made indecision amusing — and weakness a signature.
There’s only one actor on earth who could sell a line like “There’s no deceit in the cauliflower,” and he passed away today. It’s been said that “The Graduate” could have made Charles Grodin a star, had the actor only accepted the role that eventually went to Dustin Hoffman. Such “what ifs” are impossible to judge, but I like the way it actually worked out, with Grodin’s breakthrough (and best) performance coming five years later, as callow newlywed Lenny Cantrow, who meets his ideal mate at the most inopportune of times — on his honeymoon — in Elaine May’s “The Heartbreak Kid.” Before either of them became film directors, May and “The Graduate” helmer Mike Nichols were a hit comedy duo, and I’m fairly certain the two saw the same qualities in Grodin, who had a goofily handsome quality in his 30s that made him ideally suited to playing the endearing everyman. But Grodin didn’t embody just any everyman. “The Heartbreak Kid” plays like one of those wince-inducing comedies we got in the early aughts — think “The Office” or pretty much anything mumblecore — 30-odd years before audiences were comfortable looking (and laughing) at such unflattering depictions of themselves. Neil Simon’s script describes a nightmare situation: What if a callow young man married the wrong woman, and as soon as he made it to Miami Beach, stumbled across the girl of his dreams (Cybill Shepherd, playing a flirtatious Midwestern blonde)? Marriage doesn’t automatically tame most guys’ errant eyes, and for comic effect, “The Heartbreak Kid” collapses that period of buyer’s remorse to record time.
