The Break-Up (2006)

I feel ashamed that this movie has proved such a challenge for me to rate. I’ve been going back and forth as to wether or not I actually liked this film, ultimately I must say I did not, though it did surprise me in a couple of ways. The best thing this movie has going for it is of course Vince Vaughn, who salvages large portions of the film from being unbearable, though Jennifer Aniston honestly gives the best performance I’ve ever seen from her, and probably the best of which she is capable. The movie’s gimmick is that these two long time live-ins break up, but continue to attempt to share their expensive Chicago condo for some weeks there afterwards, getting increasingly on each other nerves (wasn’t this recently re-made as What Happens in Vegas?). Sharing the screen is a wide verity of quirky friends and co-workers, some of who work (I really like Vincent D'Onofrio as Vaughn's twitchy brother, I can buy those two as relatives) and others do not (Justin Long, and Judy Davis who is such a capable actress but so often seems to play the same sort of bitchy roles).

As mentioned this is a gimmick comedy and I have a strong desire to dismiss it as such, though the character arc was much better set up then in most films of this sort. There is a point at which both the Aniston and Vaughn characters come to a certain realization about their relationship and suddenly ‘change places’ as it were. While I didn’t fully buy the way this transition was handled, the after effects of the change on the characters were impressively realized, and the resolution violated a cardinal rule of the throw-away romantic comedy, the leads don’t end up together. I was very impressed and surprised by this, I always want to see a movie of this sort take that risk and I have to applaud and acknowledge the film makers for this, however ultimately it was to little to late, and the comedy just not that funny. So 2 1/2 out of 5.