HEARTBURN shows that revenge—romance realm variety—can be best served not just cold but with knife-twisting giggles, delivered on screen so millions of fellow love casualties (the ‘talking wounded’) can see what a piece of work your ex was. Nora Ephron’s slice & dice of her  4-year marriage fail with journalist Carl Bernstein falls neatly into the Write What You Know admonition. She fashioned the script for this 1986 movie from her earlier semi-autobio novel, with wry-cry barbs sharpened by Mike Nichols fluid direction of a persona gifted cast.

Manhattan-based food writer ‘Rachel Samstat’ (Meryl Streep) meets lauded political journalist ‘Mark Forman’ (Jack Nicholson) and despite initial wariness—they’ve each had marriages that didn’t work out, she’s a bundle of insecurity, he’s earned a playboy reputation—they tie the knot. Knot turns to noose.

Post-boink noshing while watching “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” could seal the deal or plan an exit.

Not so much a rom-com as an anti-rom-com, this trenchant woe-was-me brunch sails over its basically thin and unsurprising plot progression and its elitist Washington D.C./ Manhattan chic backdrops thanks to the strength of its power-duo leads (particularly champion chameleon Streep), Ephron’s smart and funny dialogue and Nichols refraining from indugence in easy sentiment goop. The brittle fun is buoyed by welcome mini-essays in timing from an ace supporting cast.

Darting in and out are Jeff Daniels, Maureen Stapleton, Stockard Channing, Richard Masur, Catherine O’Hara (sharp as a comic tack as a D.C. columnist based on gossip maven Liz Smith), Steven Hill, Milos Forman, Kevin Spacey (26 in his debut, as a punkish thief), Anna Maria Horsford, Mercedes Ruehl, Joanna Gleason and John Wood, very funny as a TV host, spoofing Alistair Cooke. *

Ranking 38th among the ’86 offerings, the US take was $25,314,000 a tad less than half the global gross of $52,600,000, possibly just enough to offset the $20,000,000 production tag. Along with public airing of Ephron’s spurn spin, it also provided Carly Simon (who did the score) with a hit song in “Coming Around Again”. 108 minutes.

* Besides Spacey, this served feature debuts for Tony Shalhoub (barely glimpsed), Natasha Lyonne and Streep’s daughter Mamie Gummer (just a baby at the time). Once upon a woe, Ephron offered that Watergate-famed Bernstein was “capable of having sex with a Venetian blind”. Carefully, one would hope.