Heartburn

Heartburn (1986) is a sharp, bittersweet drama directed by Mike Nichols you can watch online on iFILM. Meryl Streep plays Rachel — a food writer who trades New York for Washington and a second marriage, believing this time it'll hold. Jack Nicholson is her husband Mark, a charming political columnist who can't quite close the door on old habits. The film is based on Nora Ephron's thinly veiled account of her marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein — written, by all accounts, while the wound was still fresh.

The first act is almost warm. Two people, both once burned, building something that looks like it should work. Then Rachel, pregnant with their second child, discovers Mark has been seeing someone else. Nichols doesn't play the betrayal as melodrama — it lands sideways, the way these things actually do.

Streep and Nicholson, each carrying an Oscar by that point, bring enough gravity to keep the material from tipping into soap. Stream Heartburn (1986) online on iFILM — a romantic comedy in shape only, with something considerably colder underneath.