Heartbreakers

In a clear-cut case of perfecto casting, this grifter comedy stars Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt as a mother-daughter con team who bilk rich men for a living: the slinky Weaver rushes them into marriages, the curvy Hewitt immediately seduces them into cheating, and the two split Weaver's fat quickie divorce settlements. Directed by David Mirkin (Romy and Michele's High School Reunion) with an eye for pacing and plucky, well-planned japes, Heartbreakers is ripe with boisterous belly laughs and wicked comedic talent (Ray Liotta, Gene Hackman and Jason Lee are the girls' primary marks). Trying a little too hard to bring the picture in with a PG-13 rating, Mirkin lets it become a soft-pedaled affair (even with all this seduction and marriage, nobody ever has any sex at all), but Weaver and Hewitt are enjoyable enough to inspire a "who cares?" state of mind when it comes to the movie's imperfections. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)