Heartbreak Hospital (2002)

25% of critics liked it
(16 reviews)
0% of users liked it
(48 ratings)

Neely (Chelsea Altman) is a struggling actress living in New York. Her Mexican boyfriend, Tonio (Demian Bechir), is a cook who's trying to sell his own line of pasta sauces. Lottie (Patricia Clarkson), her eccentric neighbor, is obsessed with a soap opera, "Heartbreak Hospital." Frustrated with her… More Neely (Chelsea Altman) is a struggling actress living in New York. Her Mexican boyfriend, Tonio (Demian Bechir), is a cook who's trying to sell his own line of pasta sauces. Lottie (Patricia Clarkson), her eccentric neighbor, is obsessed with a soap opera, "Heartbreak Hospital." Frustrated with her inability to get work, Neely accepts Tonio's proposal of marriage, and plans to honeymoon with him in Mexico. On their way to the airport, she stops to say goodbye to her acting teacher, who tells her about an audition for the soap. To Tonio's chagrin, she gives it a shot. She's totally unprepared, and the other actresses at the audition have their game faces on. But Sunday (Diane Venora), the prima donna lead actress on the show, takes one look at Neely's glasses and her shock of purple hair and, vigilantly protective of her own place as the prettiest actress on the show, insists that Neely be hired. Neely gets the job, and soon finds herself caught up in more intrigue than she bargained for. She quickly finds out that the actresses who steal the spotlight from Sunday tend to get written out of the show quickly. Both Neely's jealous boyfriend and Milo (John Shea), the desperate actor who plays her love interest on the soap, Dr. Jonathan, seem to have trouble telling television from reality, and Lottie goes completely over the edge with her passion for the fictional doctor Milo portrays. Things get completely out of hand when one of the cast members turns up dead. Co-writer Henry Slesar did time writing for the daytime dramas One Life to Live and Edge of Night. Heartbreak Hospital is the feature debut of director Rudolph Gerber. It's based of the novel Murder at Heartbreak Hospital by Lottie Ohrwasher. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 31 min.
Directed By: Ruedi Gerber
Written By: Rudolph Gerber
Genres: Comedy

In Theaters: Sep 6, 2002 Wide
On DVD: Sep 17, 2006
Studio: Seventh Art Releasing

Critic Reviews

David Hunter, Hollywood Reporter
Other than a mildly engaging central romance, Hospital is sickly entertainment at best and mind-destroying cinematic pollution at worst.
Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times
A dreary indulgence.
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
It's quite diverting nonsense.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
An excruciating demonstration of the unsalvageability of a movie saddled with an amateurish screenplay.
Laura Rothstein, Village Voice
Sluggish, tonally uneven.
Edward Havens, FilmJerk.com
The leads we are given here are simply too bland to be interesting.
Frank Ochieng, TheWorldJournal.com
Unfortunately, Heartbreak Hospital wants to convey the same kind of haughtiness in its own sketchy material but this territory has already been explored previously with better aplomb and sardonic wit.
, E! Online
This derivative flick cops too much from much-better films like Tootsie, Nurse Betty and Soapdish.
Jean Oppenheimer, New Times
The film's tone and pacing are off almost from the get-go.
Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly
The director, with his fake backdrops and stately pacing, never settles on a consistent tone.
Michael Phillips, Citysearch
You've already seen Heartbreak if you've watched the far superior Nurse Betty or Sunset Boulevard. Even the unwatchable Soapdish is more original.
MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
Desperately unfunny when it tries to makes us laugh and desperately unsuspenseful when it tries to make us jump out of our seats.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Dodgy mixture of cutesy romance, dark satire and murder mystery.
Jon Lap, Apollo Guide
A deliberative account of a lifestyle characterized by its surface-obsession - one that typifies the delirium of post, pre, and extant stardom.