Heartburn turned a marriage's collapse into one of the sharper comedies of 1986, wringing dark humor out of betrayal without ever losing sight of the hurt underneath it.
What is Heartburn about?
Rachel, a New York food writer who has always been wary of marriage, falls for Mark, a Washington columnist, at a friend's wedding and lets herself believe this time will be different. They buy a house, start a family, and build the kind of life that looks settled from the outside. The story turns when Rachel learns that Mark has been unfaithful, and what had seemed like a happy partnership is suddenly something she has to look at honestly for the first time. Told with a food writer's eye for domestic detail, the film follows her through the practical and emotional work of deciding what comes next.
About the cast
Meryl Streep plays Rachel, opposite Jack Nicholson as her husband, Mark. Jeff Daniels, Maureen Stapleton, Stockard Channing, Richard Masur, Catherine O'Hara and Steven Hill round out the supporting cast, giving the couple's circle of friends and family real texture.
Context & significance
Mike Nichols directed Heartburn from a screenplay adapted from a novel that grew out of writer Nora Ephron's own divorce from journalist Carl Bernstein, which is part of why its comedy lands with such specific, lived-in detail rather than broad farce. Released in 1986, it sits alongside a run of adult comedies from that decade willing to treat a marriage's end as material for wit as much as for grief, pairing two of the era's biggest stars in roles closer to home than either had played before.
Watching Heartburn on Ktime
Heartburn's page is free to browse on K-Time, and the film streams for anyone who sets up a free account. The catalogue is built with the Iranian diaspora in mind, with a Farsi-first browsing experience alongside the English one.