The Break Up (2006)

Directed by: Peyton Reed | 105 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston, Joey Lauren Adams, Ann-Margret, Jason Bateman, Peter Billingsley, Judy Davis, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jon Favreau, John Michael Higgins, Cole Hauser, Justin Long, Rebecca Spence, Geoff Stults, George Glynn, Mary-Pat Green

Vince Vaughn delivers one comedy after another: ‘Starsky & Hutch’, ‘Dodgeball’, ‘The Wedding Crashers’, and now ‘The Break-Up’. In his latest, he is the romantic sparring partner of Jennifer Aniston, who previously appeared with Vaughn’s buddy Ben Stiller in the romantic comedy ‘Along Came Polly’. Just like in that film, a problem in ‘The Break-Up’ is that it involves a very unbelievable couple. But unlike ‘Polly’, which still contained a number of comedic moments (mainly due to the presence of a hilarious Philip Seymour Hoffman), there is hardly anything to laugh about in ‘The Break-Up’. Perhaps it is better not to think of the film as a romantic comedy, but rather as a drama that offers an interesting insight into the mechanisms and circumstances of broken relationships and what lies beneath the surface. Unfortunately ‘The Break-Up’ is not very satisfying from this point of view either.

The film deserves some credit for its unconventional angle within this genre. The period within a relationship highlighted here normally only makes up a small part of the film; the temporary obstacle that is introduced at about two-thirds of the playing time and has to be overcome for a while before the lovers fall into each other’s arms again. Here this situation takes up almost the entire duration of the film, and you can see why this never happens: it is an unpleasant period full of nagging and bullying. And if something really important or interesting were to emerge, other than the observation that there was too little communication, the whole birth would still be worth it for the viewer. But no, ‘The Break-Up’ is neither funny nor dramatically profound.

One problem is that we as viewers have invested little in the relationship, and therefore care little about the possible recovery of the relationship. The film opens at a basketball game where Vaughn and buddy Jon Favreau (with whom he was also in ‘Swingers’) encounter Aniston, who is sitting in the stands with her boyfriend. He forces a hot dog on her and, when they leave, starts talking to her like a true stalker. She thinks he is slightly disturbed, but in the photomontage that we are presented with a little later, the viewer has to conclude that they have started a relationship and are having a lot of fun together. Then the actual movie begins and we witness the first in a row of many fights between the two lovebirds. Friends come to visit and Vaughn should have brought nine lemons and he only has two with him. And after dinner, he’d rather play on his Playstation 2 than help Aniston with the dishes. The fight spirals out of control and the relationship ends.

The joke is that they both continue to live in the same apartment because neither of them want to give up. This creates funny conflict situations in the common areas, and the presence of both people in the same house provides a great opportunity to make the other jealous. Aniston is picked up by new friends, and Vaughn has a group of ladies come over for a game of strip poker. This occasionally makes for a funny moment, but the hostilities and frictions offer us, like the characters, more irritation than entertainment. They also continue to have the weekly friends nights, which results in a forced game of Pictionary, which seems to have been plucked straight out of ‘When Harry Met Sally’. In that movie, however, the scene was still somewhat funny due to the charming Meg Ryan and Bruno Kirby’s silly comments. The tone was also more light-hearted than gloomy as in ‘The Break-Up’. A lot of humorous scenes also just hit dead, such as an intended thigh-banger at the beginning of the film, where the entire table plunges into an a cappella session, much to the dismay of a bewildered Vaughn. More amusing scenes take place between Vaughn and his tour bus colleague Vincent D’Onofrio. The latter plays a somewhat compulsive and stupid eccentric and has nice interactions with Vaughn, who he is always on his skin because of overdue administration.

The funniest scene is probably the one in which Aniston and Vaughn are talking to their real estate agent, who is also a friend. In this scene the business is mixed with the personal in a dryly comic way. Dramatically, the film could have worked, but unfortunately we viewers don’t understand why the two main characters ever got into a relationship, and why they should get back together. They don’t seem to match at all. Also, no touching or meaningful insights come to the surface that could bind us to the story or the characters. And if, after all the gloating and bullying, a dose of melodrama also falls on your plate, it turns out that the film cannot even be true to its own tone. This pair should have split up immediately after the fight at the beginning of the film, looking for another partner. This would have saved everyone, including the viewer, a lot of misery.