“Disarm the audience with comedy,” Fleabag’s creator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, once said, “then punch them in the gut with drama when they least expect it.” She wasn’t actually invoking Nora Ephron’s autobiographical novel Heartburn or its film adaptation when offering this advice but both encapsulate it to a T.
Ephron, who died in 2012, is mostly remembered for writing and directing romantic comedies. Her oeuvre is packed with witty banter and charming meet-cutes: you’re probably picturing Meg Ryan simulating orgasm in a coffee shop, or Meg Ryan dumping Bill Pullman for Tom Hanks, or Meg Ryan dumping Greg Kinnear for Tom Hanks. Ephron also possessed a wryly observational and frequently acerbic wit, reminiscent of Dorothy Parker and David Sedaris, and Heartburn is at times so acerbic it’s enough to induce actual heartburn. Its apparent dearth of charm is perhaps why it’s less universally beloved than When Harry Met Sally (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) or You’ve Got Mail (1998). After all, its basic plot – “man serially cheats on his heavily pregnant wife” – isn’t exactly conducive to Netflix and chilling.
Heartburn is a fictionalised retelling of Ephron’s doomed second marriage to the political journalist Carl Bernstein, whom she learned was having an affair while she was pregnant with their second son. After filing for divorce she channelled her heartbreak into the story of a food writer, Rachel, whose journalist husband, Mark, has an affair … while she is pregnant with their second son. The parallels are transparent and Bernstein threatened to sue. He never did.
Ephron’s 1986 film adaptation, directed by Mike Nichols, stars Meryl Streep as Rachel and Jack Nicholson as Mark (Mandy Patinkin was the original Mark but apparently there wasn’t enough chemistry between them). It also features Jeff Daniels, Stockard Channing and Catherine O’Hara; Kevin Spacey and a young Natasha Lyonne make their film debuts. But the star-studded cast could not save it from being fairly well panned.
It’s not the acting: Streep is movingly vulnerable and Nicholson is suitably slimy. It’s rumoured that he repeatedly flirted with Streep during filming while in a long-term relationship with Anjelica Huston and while Streep was pregnant. In scenes depicting the couple when they are (at least ostensibly) happy, there’s chemistry as well as moments of genuine sweetness. Any feeling that we are being kept at arm’s length reflects how Rachel keeps Mark at a distance, as well as the facade she projects to prevent herself from falling apart. It shows the devastating banality of marital crises; how even in the depths of despair, people have to press on.
To my mind, critics have historically focused too much on the film’s caustic burn and entirely missed its beating heart. The late Roger Ebert condemned Heartburn for lacking Ephron’s usual “loin-churning passion” and said her lack of objectivity made it “bitter” and “sour”. I like to imagine Ephron responding with a recipe for lemon loaf or a whiskey sour, as befitting her character Rachel’s occupation as a food writer. The film’s characters, Ebert scathingly concluded, were “‘only marginally interesting”’. In some ways he might have been right. But I would argue that the very elements he criticised are what make it real and relatable, and therefore the truest of Ephron’s meditations on love.
Is Heartburn a perfect movie? No. Is it a date night pick? Probably not, unless you’re planning on dumping your date that night. But is it as cold and charmless as critics have claimed? I think not. I would go so far as to say it’s inherently hopeful. As Rachel finally decides whether to forgive Mark, we feel hopeful she will find love again: even if it’s for herself.
As for Ephron, she was married three times and the third one stuck: she stayed with the Goodfellas and Casino screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi for more than 20 years. In her final essay collection she wrote a list of what she would miss when she died. It was funny and frank, and consisted of the banalities that make up the tapestry of a life well lived. At the top of the list were her children and husband. She knew a thing or two about real love.
Heartburn is available to stream on Prime Video in Australia, UK and US. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
