The Break-Up Review [2]
Posted by Matthew Craggs on 06.05.2006
These characters are just so wacky!
Vince Vaughn - Gary Grobowski
Jennifer Aniston - Brooke Meyers
Joey Lauren Adams – Maddie
Cole Hauser - Lupus Grobowski
Jon Favreau - Johnny O
Jason Bateman – Riggleman
Judy Davis - Marilyn Dean
Vincent D'Onofrio - Dennis Grobowski
Universal Pictures presents a film directed by Peyton Reed. Written by Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender. Running time 106 minutes. Rated PG-13 for sexual content, some nudity and language.
The Break Up, the latest from director Peyton Reed (of Bring It On fame), fails because it breaks a very important rule of romantic comedy: we don't care if the couple gets together.
The picture starts with a scene set in Wrigley Field. Gary (Vaughn) and buddy Johnny (Favreau) take in a Cubs/Sox game when an out of place Brooke (Aniston) sits a few seats down with her plaid short wearing boyfriend. Vaughn does his long winded frat boy rant routine and sleazes his way into a date with Brooke. We are then treated to a photo montage over the main titles and Queen's "You're My Best Friend."
That's some relationship. When the titles complete we are thrown right into the break up. Gary comes home from his job as a joke cracking tour guide, Brooke comes home from her day as a sales representative at a high end art gallery. Vaughn is low brow and plops down in front of the television to some baseball highlights, Brooke is high brow and gets right into cooking for the big dinner. How do these two wacky people ever get along?
The pair's families come over and hilarity ensues. Brooke's closeted brother is part of an acapella singing troupe and breaks into song a little too close to Gary. Har, har. See, Gary is a man's man, and he doesn't know how to react to being serenading by his lover's brother. They are so wacky!
The dinner wraps up and the break up happens. Brooke feels underappreciated and Gary, being the man's man, cannot read between the lines. They split, but there's a bit of a problem: their share ownership of their. Neither wants to give up ownership and neither can afford the mortgage. What do they do with the condo? That's for you to find out, but I can safely say without spoiling anything that they initially try to live side by side in platonic harmony as things begin to go haywire.
There are also a group of wacky friends and family giving contradictory advice. Joey Lauren Adams is horribly misused as Brooke's friend, and Vincent D'Onofrio is confusing as Gary's brother. His character is either mentally retarded or stoned. We never find out which it is.
The problem with The Break Up is that we agree with the leads. We are thrown right into the split where they seem so incompatible that a split makes perfect sense. Vaughn does a convincing job of showing us that his character doesn't appreciate Brooke. He doesn't offer to help with the opening big dinner, wants Aniston to stay at home despite her protest, and at one point even throws a naked poker orgy. Brooke is a successful career driven woman who obviously belongs with somebody better. She wants him back, however, because Hollywood likes their leading women to pine for immature, self centered men. We know these people should not be together because they're just so wrong for each other; unfortunately, the picture depends on our wanting them to reconcile. It doesn't help that the only time we see them enjoying each other is a quick scene at the beginning and the photo montage. As a result watching this picture is like watching When Harry Met Sally and rooting for them to break apart. If we don't see what was good about Gary and Brooke's relationship why do we care about them after they have split?
Furthermore, the picture just isn't funny. The aforementioned Gary serenade, the lemon argument found in the trailer, and a scene where Gary is attacked reek of 4:30 Friday afternoon laziness. Vaughn's rapid-fire rants are underwhelming because we have seen them in his work so often. Brooke's ego centric employer Marilyn Dean (Judy Davis) is confusing because she slips from pompous boss to caring sidekick when it serves the plot. Meanwhile, her flaming co-worker is a walking stereotype who fails to capitalize on any of those one dimensional laughs and the ending, which would have been more effective if it ended two minutes earlier, is a cop out. We may not have the typical Hollywood ending, but we get an ending that suffers from tacked on optimism when it isn't appropriate. Overall, the film is a failure.
On the bright side the scene where Gary and Brooke break up is surprisingly intense. For some reason the cast and crew decided to turn it on for that confrontation. Moreover, a scene near the end of the picture where Gary and Johnny discuss having someone murdered, and a scene where Gary befriends Brooke's new man, are funny enough. These moments are few and far between
The 411: The Break Up badly misuses its supporting cast, is confused to the characters behavior, and is just plain unfunny.
