Review: The Break-Up

Don’t rent The Break-Up if you’re in the mood for a comedy or you’ll end up like me, sorely disappointed.

There are exactly two funny scenes in the film; one at the start and one at the end. That’s an awfully long stretch between smiles – forget laughs – and it doesn’t qualify this movie as a comedy in my books.

I like Jennifer Aniston. Friends would not have been so much fun without her as Rachel. I love Vince Vaughn. They should have created some sort of special comedy award for his incredible performance in The Wedding Crashers. He plays essentially the same character in every movie, and that’s fine. We like that character. But in The Break-Up we get bitchy Rachel and the dark side of the Vaughn we’ve come to know and love.

The title is appropriate, I’ll give them that. It’s not silly or obtuse like The Squid and the Whale, which included neither creature. After two years, a couple breaks up. That’s about it. It’s a very realistic portrayal of their relationship’s ugly, sad, confusing demise. If anything, because of a lack of laughs it is too realistic. Break-ups are sad and difficult. Who wants to spend two hours living vicariously through another one?

The editors who created the commercials to hype this movie when it first landed in theatres should also win an award for most deceptive advertising campaign. They made the film seem funny, but when Vince’s character Gary yells, “Why would I WANT do to dishes?” in the movie, it’s anything but amusing.

The Break-Up remains watchable only because of the likeability of the two leads and of Jon Favreau, who provides one of the two comic moments. Otherwise it’s really a waste of time. Even the out-takes are flat. Unless you’re stuck in bed with the flu and starved for distractions, I wouldn’t even bother with The Break-Up. Coming from me – a huge fan of Friends and someone who can rattle off dialogue from Swingers – you know it’s got to be very disappointing.