Heartburn (1986)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Mike Nichols

Writers:

Nora Ephron (novel)
Nora Ephron (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 July 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Two Oscar Winning Stars Combine With An Oscar Winning Director [UK Theatrical]

Plot:

Rachel and Mark are both Washington journalists. They meet at a wedding and not long after they get married themselves...

Plot Keywords:

Marriage | Columnist | Pregnancy | Journalist | Pregnant

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Meryl Streep	...	Rachel Samstat
Jack Nicholson	...	Mark Forman
Jeff Daniels	...	Richard
Maureen Stapleton	...	Vera
Stockard Channing	...	Julie Siegel
Richard Masur	...	Arthur Siegel
Catherine O'Hara	...	Betty
Steven Hill	...	Harry Samstat
Milos Forman	...	Dmitri
Mamie Gummer	...	Annie Forman (as Natalie Stern)
Karen Akers	...	Thelma Rice
Aida Linares	...	Juanita
Anna Maria Horsford	...	Della, Harry's Maid
Ron McLarty	...	Det. Andrew O'Brien
Kenneth Welsh	...	Dr. Appel

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Peru:14 | Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Norway:12 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Alexandria, Virginia, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The movie is based on Nora Ephron's real-life marriage to, and divorce from, Carl Bernstein and the birth of their two sons. The woman Bernstein had an affair with was Margaret Jay - wife of the British Ambassador to the United States, and daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan. Margaret Jay became a Baroness herself in 1992, and rose to become the first female Leader of the House of Lords from 1998-2001.

Quotes:

Mark Forman: He has an unlisted address.
Rachel Samstat: What are you talking about?
Mark Forman: Oh, well, it's the latest thing.
Rachel Samstat: What kind of person has an unlisted address?
Mark Forman: I'll tell you what kind person. The kind that doesn't want to be dead. The kind people are trying to kill all the time.
Rachel Samstat: Why are you angry at me for?
Mark Forman: I'm not angry at you.
Rachel Samstat: Then what you shouting at me for?
Mark Forman: Because you're the only one that's here.

Movie Connections:

References Carousel (1956)

Soundtrack:

Coming Around Again

Uneven, but less manufactured than Ephron's subsequent films

Although somewhat artificial, the humor and "heartburn" of this Nora Ephron film seem more affecting and less manufactured than those in her more slick subsequent films, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle. Perhaps the autobiographical slant helped.

Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson play a couple based on Ephron and Carl Bernstein. They meet, marry, settle in Washington, and have children. Streep's wedding-day jitters, it turns out, were amply justified; she discovers an affair between her husband and a social-climbing hostess.

Streep is so luminous and so natural that one may not realize until the end of the film how completely insipid and devoid of any distinguishing qualities her character is. "Rachel" changes from a wan, nervous divorcee (before meeting Nicholson's character) to an obsessively devoted wife and mother who keeps babbling about how happy she is.

Nicholson is well-cast as the rakish but (initially) endearing husband. The supporting cast reflects the expert hand of Juliet Taylor, Woody Allen's longtime casting director, who peppered it with many familiar faces, including Allen favorites Joanna Gleason, Caroline Aaron, and Karen Akers. Maureen Stapleton is particularly droll as Streep's shrink. Nineties audiences will enjoy seeing Kevin Spacey as a neurasthenic mugger.

The comedy in the film is somewhat uneven, but often extremely engaging, as in a running parody of "Masterpiece Theatre." And compare the spontaneous bravado of Nicholson's lopsided rendition of "Soliloquy" from Carousel (the comic highlight) to the forced quirkiness of Meg Ryan's tone-deaf "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" in When Harry Met Sally...