Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee, Gene Hackman. I thought 2000 was a bad year, but it's taken me nearly a quarter of 2001 to give a positive rating to any new film. I didn't expect Heartbreakers to be the first film of the year that I liked, but here we are. However, they find out that they are in debt to the IRS after years of tax evasion. So, they need to pull off at least one more job just to get out of the red.
Page wants to con a young, cute doctor.
It's a pretty basic con-artist plot, and the story is pretty predictable. OK, the end is visible before you're halfway there, but unlike other comedy capers, this one is worth sitting through. What is surprising is that Hewitt appears to have the comic ability to match, even when placed within this talented cast. Without Weaver, Liotta, Lee, and Hackman, Heartbreakers would not work, but thankfully they are there to create the right tone. The sentimentality in the Hewitt-Lee love story is kept to a minimum, allowing the rest of the film to be a delightful black comedy.