THE BREAK UP
Everybody has or had friends who were in a relationship that was just a complete and total train wreck, two people that by no means should be together nor should have ever gotten together. That is the basis of The Break Up.
Brooke (Jennifer Aniston) and Gary (Vince Vaughn) meet while she is on a date at a Cubs Game. Gary is able to charm her and eventually separate her from the man she is out with and that, presumably, is the basis for their relationship. Here is one of the basic flaws of the movie. We go straight from that scene to the two of them living together at the end of their relationship. There is nothing that makes us even care whether these two people stay together or fall apart.
Part of me wants to applaud the film for being different, but there is nothing to really hold on to here. There is very little character development. The audience is basically meant to rely on the fact that Vince Vaughn is funny just so we don’t completely hate him. Meanwhile, we really feel sorry for Brooke, mostly because we all love Jennifer Aniston, who does a great job with what she is given.
While on one hand we should be happy that Hollywood hasn’t given us yet another corny romantic comedy, we should chastise them for not completely sticking to their guns and making the movie that it appears they wanted to make. See, what you have here is two films. The first is the story of a woman in an abusive relationship with an overbearing, selfish, inconsiderate man-child. He treats her terribly and walks all over her until she’s finally had enough and empowers herself to get her boots a-walkin’. The second is a broad, fast-talking Vince Vaughn style comedy, with over the top characters and prat falls.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with either one of these films; both are entertaining in their own way. As a matter of fact, within The Break Up, both halves are independently successful. It’s only when you put them together that they don’t work. It’s almost as though the filmmakers didn’t like the idea of Vaughn being utterly despicable, so they added the whole second layer to make the audience kind of like him. Personally, I lost what little sympathy I had for Vaughn after the strip poker scene.
The supporting characters are, for the most part, pretty good. I really loved the way they were able to incorporate Vaughn’s fast talking style with his brothers (Cole Houser and Vincent D’Onofrio). Jon Favreau is hilarious as, once again, Vaughn’s buddy. It is also nice to see Jason Bateman doing that very subtle comedy that he does. Conversely, John Michael Higgins falls entirely flat as Aniston’s over the top singing brother. I felt as though he was meant to antagonize the audience as much as he was Vince Vaughn.
It’s not as though I didn’t enjoy this movie, because I did. I just think The Break Up is one fairly entertaining film that is comprised of what could have been two great films if the filmmakers had just taken a queue from their own title.
The Grade
- Story: C
- Acting: A-
- Visuals: B+
- Originality: A
- Enjoyability: C-
- Overall: B-
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