The Break-Up (2006)

I had read several good reviews of The Break-Up, so I was somewhat eager to see it. While it was certainly deeper than most movies about relationships (it really is about a break-up, so I wouldn't call it a romantic comedy), it wasn't deep enough.

Good things: the secondary characters who are supposed to be annoying really are annoying (in particular, Brooke's brother Richard, an a cappella freak, and both of Gary's brothers and his best friend); the main characters, Gary and Brooke (played by Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston), actually learn from their experiences; a few of the characters (well, I can only think of one, actually) seem to know what what makes a good relationship (and that's debatable, come to think of it).

Not so good things: those secondary characters are annoying; we have to witness way too much bickering and fighting between the broken-up couple before any changes occur (and virtually nothing except still shots from their happy time together); while Gary makes big changes, Brooke seems to barely grasp her own faults, though she is the first to try to set things right by acting selflessly instead of selfishly.

The Break-Up really is a different kind of film, though. Better than most. Sometimes Gary and Brooke say so much just by looking at each other. Even though it's hard to forget Aniston as Rachel on Friends, I think she's a good actress.

And I barely recognized Jason Bateman as the couple's friend. He was also annoying, but funny.

Comments

  1. I haven't seen this, though I did want to when it first came out. But I have heard only bad reviews from people I know who've seen it.

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  2. Well, it really is a good movie. Much better than most movies about relationships. What's good is that both characters seem to learn from their mistakes. I just didn't feel like I had a lot to learn from them. I don't want to sound like a "bad review" of The Break-Up. I actually think it was pretty good. I'm probably being more harsh than I would otherwise be because it seems to be trying. It's trying to be something different than your run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, where we have no reason to believe that this new, exciting romance will work out so much better than that old, boring one. The old, boring one probably started out the same way, so what's different this time? Because The Break-Up shows the end of a relationship, it has a lot more to say than most movies out there. So if you're in the mood for a sort of serious movie sometime, I do think it's worth seeing.

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