'Heartbreakers' By Desson Howe Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 23, 2001

Jennifer Love Hewitt, left, plays a con artist in "Heartbreakers." (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

Max tricks rich men into marriage, Page seduces them into infidelity, then Max picks them clean in divorce court.

But when they decide to do their last scam together -- on hacking, coughing tobacco billionaire William B. Tensy (Gene Hackman) -- romantic complications follow.

For Max, there's Dean (Ray Liotta), a husband and chop-shop owner from New Jersey who still loves Max even after she has divorced him and taken his money.

And when Page tries to branch off on her own, she falls in love with her target, nice guy Jack (Jason Lee).

The performers give this mediocre comedy more energy than it deserves. But Page's affair with Jack, in which she spends almost two hours of the movie in denial about her feelings, is too tedious for anyone to sit through. And the subplots -- Max's dealings with Tensy and Dean -- are even worse.

Trust me, you'll want to leave these people to get on with their tedious scams alone.

Heartbreakers (PG-13, 124 minutes) -- Contains sexual material, mostly language.