The Break-Up (2006)

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The first must-see film of the year.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

"The Break-Up" is an American English-language film from 2006, so this one had its 10th anniversary last year. It was directed by Peyton Reed, who was in the headlines not too long ago thanks to the new Ant-Man movie. The script comes from Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender and for both of them, this 100-minute film is probably still their most known work. Which really says nothing positive in their favor. The reason for that is that this film we have here is the epitome of a forgettable romantic comedy. Most of the jokes aren't working at all and I personally found it difficult honestly to like any of the two protagonists, let alone cheer for them. It also proves than Vince Vaughn is not lead actor material at all and that Jennifer Aniston, no matter how much of a sweetheart and darling she may be, is no lead actress material either. At least if we go by 2006 standards. I have not seen her more recent work like the one film that she almost got Oscar-nominated for.Anyway, the story here is about a couple on the verge of split-up throughout the entire film and they are basically only still somewhat together because neither wants to give up on their amazing apartment. So what is the solution? Both give up on it. Doesn't make any sense to be honest. Besides, the comedy relies on stuff like Aniston's character running around naked after they basically split up already to get him horny and maybe agree to leave the house to get away from his ex provoking him, but not letting him get any. Or him playing video games for hours with her new potential boyfriends. It's just not entertaining. Quality actors like Davis, D'Onofrio and Bateman (actually all better than the leads) are wasted for pointless supporting characters that add nothing to the story, perhaps in a desperate attempt by the filmmakers to prove to us that Aniston and Vaughn are on a higher level. They may be bigger names, but they just don't have the range. Anyway, with the ending they probably tried to be creative and actually make a dramatic impact also with them actually splitting up as one could have thought throughout the entire film that they may get together again. But of course, they weren't bold enough to really go for it all and instead include an uninspired fake happy ending in which the romantically hopeless (I am not talking actual romantics, but just the desperate) can think that they are really getting back together in fact. Of course these are the ones who also consider Jennifer Aniston one of the best actresses from her generation. Four stars out of ten is still extremely generous for this really bad film. I recommend to stay far far away.

Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman?? I'm in! Sounds like a blast, right? Well, I guess it would be, if the movie wasn't about a miserable breakup between Vaughn and Anniston's characters. This breakup takes place within the first 15 minutes of the film and since the two are stuck living together until their condo sells, it drags on for another 1.5 hours while we all watch. They fight constantly, try to make each other jealous and turn friends against one another. This might be funny or watchable if Anniston was unlikable. But, she is so sweet in this film and so heart-broken by her miscalculation that watching Vaughn be so crude to her just isn't enjoyable. This movie simply doesn't work. In the end, it may have had a chance to be saved by giving us an ending that we could feel good about. But, not the case. It ends on as crappy a moment as it starts with.I watch comedy to feel good, to lift my mood. This one does nothing but bring me down.

Some actors get typecast pretty quickly. I think it's fair to say that Jenifer Aniston is one. She readily plays the lovable, kooky happy-go-lucky characters in a will they/won't they romantic relationship (and let's face it - they always do).I don't normally watch romantic comedies. I find them predictable and identical (and rarely are any of them worthy of the 'comedy' half of their labelled genre). I was curious about The Break Up because I heard it didn't subscribe to romantic comedies' formula. And there's a very good reason for this - that is because it's NOT a romantic comedy.Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn get together in the opening montage and break up about fifteen minutes into the film. I knew this before I watched it. Therefore, what I expected, was roughly another seventy-five minutes of laughs as the two central protagonists make each other's lives hell.However, what I got was simply two people being nasty to each other. Sadly, this is probably a lot more realistic than most rom-coms, and, upon watching it, I think I'd rather stick with the fantasy of boy meets girl and they live happily ever after.The bottom line is that this film is more of a drama than a comedy - the jokes are few and far between. The scripted arguments may be accurate, but they're not that nice to keep watching. It's quite sexist too. Jenifer Aniston may be a bit uptight, but Vince Vaughn is a berk. The hardest thing to imagine is these two characters getting together in the first place and staying together long enough to even buy a house, let alone fight over who should keep it once they've split.Bottom line - yes, it's more 'real' than a romantic comedy, yet it has less comedic elements than even the most unfunny romantic comedy. It certainly doesn't stick to the rom-com genre. For the first time in my life I find myself saying 'Pity.'

Gary Grobowski (Vince Vaughn) is a loud mouth boorish Neanderthal who works as a tour guide in Chicago. Brooke Meyers (Jennifer Aniston) works at an art gallery and feels completely neglected by him. They fight and they break up. Only neither of them are willing to move out of their luxury apartment and a war of the sexes ensues.He is an insensitive idiot. It's not a new character for Vince and it's getting tiresome. She's a high maintenance girlfriend disguised as the girl next door. Again it's not a new character. They are not likable characters and I'm getting tired of the actors doing the same thing over and over again. They don't make for a good couple, and they don't have good chemistry. They should never be together in the first place. The only good thing is that they don't get back together.This is meant to be a comedy. But there is too much serious anger and hate to be funny. It had a chance of this being a dark comedy, but nobody here could figure out how to make one.