The Break-Up (2006)

I received an e-mail from a friend about this movie. The entire content of his message was this:

"Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston have wonderful chemistry. Some would liken The Break Up to "War of the Roses" but it's something entirely different. It turns out to be a movie of less comedy and less darkness, but more raw feeling. The darkness that is felt is natural. The screenwriters did a wonderful job of it.

MeMe... the reviews are poor, but see the film. It's raw, gritty and truthful."

Except for the "screenwriters did a wonderful job of it" line, I don't really disagree with his write-up. The arguments felt extremely real -- even frustrating in their familiarity at times. I finally told Gary that I had to stop watching it with him because it was reminding me of long-ago forgiven and forgotten ugly arguments we'd had and revisiting those feelings with him at my side was making me incredibly uncomfortable and unhappy.

Yes, the "couple annihilating their coupledom" portions felt honest, but it certainly didn't make for an entertaining movie. So, how did the screenwriters choose to balance the film's hard edge? By making three people in Jennifer Aniston's life ridiculously colorful. She's got a fey co-worker (Justin Long: baby-voiced, skittish, and permanently on cheer-up patrol), a cartoonishly imperious boss (Judy Davis: love her, but this performance is so over-the-top that Marlon Brando would've cringed), and an acapella-singing, surprise fighting, possibly gay brother (John Michael Higgins: uh, whatever).

The comic relief never worked and the straight stuff just hurt. Aniston and Vaughn do a great job, but waste their efforts in this disjointed and unenjoyable film.

C-