Although Mike Nichols directed, Heartburn marks a deeply personal effort from screenwriter Nora Ephron, who adapted her own, semi-autobiographical novel. The irony, then, is that the movie leaves out all of the nitty-gritty details only she could have included. Instead, in exploring the relationship between Manhattan magazine writer Rachel (Meryl Streep) and Washington political journalist Mark (Jack Nicholson), we jump from meet cute to marriage to money pit to kids. The audience is never fully let in on either character’s interior life, as we skip from incident to incident. This is despite Streep and Nicholson working overtime—a strange sight for two effortless actors. Ephron serves up some great lines—“Divorce is only a temporary solution.” “You want monogamy, marry a swan.”—but not the connective tissue of real life.
(8/5/2025)
