The Heartbreak Kid, starring Ben Stiller, Michelle Monaghan, Jerry Stiller, Malin Akerman; screenplay by Scot Armstrong and Leslie Dixon; directed by Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly.

Like most popular arts, the cinema naturally reflects its immediate cultural context, changing as the world around it changes, so that within its fixed forms it exhibits a special dynamism and fluidity. The concept of the remake, a staple of film for decades, demonstrates some of that fluidity, showing in one particular work just how far we have progressed. Now, following the release of the fourth version of "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers," another remake, "The Heartbreak Kid," suggests some other developments in both film and society in the 25 years since the original movie appeared.

The first picture, written by Neil Simon, directed by Elaine May, and based on a short story by Bruce Jay Friedman, maneuvered through some tricky territory, creating the sort of comedy that generates considerable discomfort in its audience. The new movie, directed by the Farrelly brothers, essentially disposes of the delicate moral issues the original raised, aiming instead for a good deal of outrageous humor, most of it of the low variety, i.e., based on physical situations, and most of them sexual in nature (it is a Farrelly picture, after all).

Ben Stiller, a Farrelly favorite, plays Eddie Cantrow, a 40-year-old San Francisco bachelor depressed by his ex-fiancee's marriage (and humiliated at the wedding reception), and pressured by his nagging father (Jerry Stiller) either to enjoy some healthy hedonism or get married himself. Fortuitously, he meets and falls in love with Lila (Malin Akerman), a beautiful, vivacious young woman who reciprocates his feelings. After a courtship of a few months, they marry, and then of course everything goes wrong.

As soon as they begin their drive to Mexico for their honeymoon, Eddie discovers, along with a host of annoying idiosyncracies, that Lila has lied about her job (she has none), her financial situation (she is $26,000 in debt), and her background (she is a former cocaine addict). On top of that, her preferences in lovemaking run to very rough sex and certain positions that practically disable her thoroughly cowed husband.

As in the original, when the couple reach their destination, Lila, refusing as always to take Eddie's advice, suffers a severe sunburn and stays in their hotel room. Relieved to escape from a woman he now finds completely obnoxious, Eddie falls in love with another young woman, Miranda (Michelle Monaghan), who unlike Lila shares his interest in sports and adventure. Most of the movie involves Eddie's desperate attempts to conceal his marriage from Miranda and at the same time deceive Lila, which forces him to invent a number of increasingly elaborate and imaginative falsehoods.

Probably because of the collaboration of Elaine May and Neil Simon, the original film dealt wittily with the Jewishness of its protagonist (Charles Grodin), who on his honeymoon falls for a tall, blonde Nordic goddess (Cybill Shepherd) from Minnesota, the complete opposite of his wife. The Farrellys jettison anything like an ethnic culture clash, except for the fact that Miranda and her family, mostly amiable rednecks, come from Mississippi, where Eddie, in one of many silly complications, ends up. They follow their natural instincts and traditional methods, concentrating instead on outrageous sexual humor, both verbal and visual, some of it hilarious, a great many sight gags, and a few moments of slapstick violence, e.g., when Miranda's cousins discover Eddie's marital situation and shove a hot pepper up his nose (you had to be there).

The picture runs long and depends heavily on repeating itself over and over, possibly a result of the confinement of its single absurd situation and its limited cast; it also, however, demonstrates the transformation of the allowable. Though it succeeded in its own way, the original "Heartbreak Kid" only tentatively engaged its central sexual complication, while the new version exploits it thoroughly and comically. Twenty-five years later, the Farrelly brothers can show what Elaine May could not, and in their usual manner, tend to go for raunchy rather than subtle. Whether that's bad or good remains open to debate, but their work indicates that both the movies and the culture have come a long way.