In The Break-Up, Gary (Vince Vaughan) and Brooke (Jennifer Anniston)… well, they break up. In doing so they think up several mischievous or just downright nasty things to do to get the other back for… whatever it was they did, or were supposed to have done, to cause the break-up. Because of cause both of them believe it was the other’s fault. They look to their friends and family for advice and comfort, mostly managing to ignore that actual good advice that comes from them and sometimes managing to ignore the bad. Tensions continue to mount as the two former lovers find new ways of annoying each other and struggle to continue their lives while living separately in the same house.

Sounds like a barrel of fun, doesn’t it? That’s right, and it isn’t. There are a few funny moments, most notably near the beginning when the two families meet for a “getting to know each other” dinner, but the subject matter isn’t funny and neither, most of the time, is the movie. It probably shouldn’t have been marketed as a comedy at all, that built up unrealistic expectations on everyone’s part. The film would have worked better as a drama or black comedy, but it isn’t either and it just doesn’t work. It somehow doesn’t even fit the description of “tragic-comedy”. Some of the situations and reactions of the squabbling duo were uncomfortably close to home – I’ve seen people I know break up in much the same way in the past – and again, it just isn’t funny. The film doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be – it’s half tragedy, half comedy, but the comedy elements actually feels out of place here. Vaughan and Aniston play their parts well, but Vaughan’s character is so completely stupid and arrogant that I couldn’t possibly have cared less what happened to him, while Anniston’s character I couldn’t really warm to despite some early sympathy for her character. Of course this situation is pretty much as I had expected from reading some other reviews – in fact I had decided not to bother watching it but had let myself be persuaded by a friend, who ended up hating the film!

I actually did want to like this film. Certain aspects of it were well handled, the lead performances were good, some of the supporting cast performances are even better (Joey Lauren Adams as Addie, Brooke’s sister, and Jason Bateman as their friend and Realtor), and the music wasn’t at all bad. John Michael Higgins (Fun with Dick and Jane as the vocally unchallenged Richard as superb. Put it all together though and it just didn’t add up to a good film somehow. It was just too depressing to enjoy. The ending was somewhat inconclusive but I kind of liked the way it was done, but for me the main problem was the beginning. Okay it’s kind of easy to see why Gary might have been attracted to Brooke on a purely physical basis, but I can see no reason whatsoever why Brooke would have ended up with Gray. The question isn’t really “why did they break up?” so much as “how did they get together in the first place?”. Neither did it help that almost every one of the peripheral characters were more interesting than either of the leads. For a 12A (PG-13) rated film it also seemed to have quite a lot of bad language, which only the very juvenile element of the audience found amusing. I guess the whole thing was designed to be a twist on the romantic comedy genre but for me it just didn’t work. Of the 14 films released this year that I’ve seen so far, The Break-Up is the one I’ve enjoyed the least.

Incidentally, much has been made of the fact that Jennifer Aniston’s nude body appears in this film. Well, if anyone goes to see the film purely for that they’re likely to be very disappointed, but then again anyone who goes to see the film purely for that is very likely to deserve being disappointed. Honestly, it’s one second from behind, then 3 very blurred seconds from behind. Really no big deal even if you’re the world’s biggest fan of Jenny’s behind.


Recommended: No