The Break-Up Reviews

If I recall correctly, this movie was released back when Jennifer Anniston was recovering from her separation with Brad Pitt so the movie kind of surfed on this wave which does sounds pretty lame if you ask me. Anyway, I think Vince Vaughn is funny in general (at least, back in those days, it seems like ages since the last time I saw him in something funny or remotely entertaining) and he was pretty funny here. On the other hand, Anniston keeps playing the same character over and over and it is getting really annoying at this point. At least, Angelina Jolie tries different roles from time to time, maybe that's why Brad dumped her.... Anyway, let's get back on the movie, shall we? Even though they were an item back then, it was actually rather difficult to spot the chemistry between Vaughn and Anniston. Above all, the biggest issue was that you feel that the makers couldn't make up their mind if they should stay together or not. So, you have this constant annoying back-and-forth 'They love each other, they don't, they love each other, they don't...' but it didn’t have much to do with their actual feelings for each other, in fact, it had more to do with the fact that the makers wanted to keep the viewers on the edge during the whole thing and also with the fact that, actually, they just plain didn't know what do with those characters. Still in my opinion, it remains a rather well made romantic-comedy, Vaughn was funny, Anniston was charming and I was fairly entertained throughout the whole thing. To conclude, even though it is nothing mind-blowing, I still think it is worth look, especially if you like the genre.

There are two things that surprise me about this film. Firstly that it is not at all the recent Farrelly brothers style American schtick we have become accustomed to being trained to react to like packs of mindless mall seals all clapping and honking in unision.

It's almost as though someone gave Pedro Almodovar his next gig in Hollywood immediately after doing Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

OK OK I'm not saying this is genius work, it's an OK movie. It's just the adult nature of the film that is surprising. To clarify for those sweating plams out there, by adult I mean humour requiring a greater than schoolyard level of appreciation and possibly the experience of actually having had a relationship at anything beyond the seemingly ubiquitous, tepid, shallow, masturbatory transcience of your my space profile. Believe me there once was a time when we met up with friends for an entire evening of conversation without the aid of mobile phones, internet connectivity or references to Little Britain.

I can only wonder how this went down in the mulitplex hell of USA inc.

But, and more importantly, the second surprising thing about this film was how fat many of the actors are? What's going on? Vaughn, his buddy Favreau and the woefully underused D'Onforio are all huge bloaters. Who was providing the food on set for Christ sake and couldn't someone have passed some onto Jennifer who looked like she could have used some fattening up after her bouts of post-Brad bullemic self abuse.

Anyway. Just don't watch it with your other half.

The alternate ending on the DVD is better, but the movie is still flat.

The Break-Up was an amusing movie with lots of resonance for married and dating couples. I never really laughed during the movie - it was just a "smiler", but I did enjoy it. I was left unpleased by the ending, like they did not quite know how to finish the movie. Jennifer Aniston is fun, but unremarkable. The thing that bugs me is the characters don't make a lot of sense - yes it's only a comedy, but is seems to be trying to say something profound about relationships. Personally, I did not get the message.