The Break-Up

Could relate to every second of the film! Very easy going not too heavy and great to watch with your partner.

This is as middle of the road in film making as it gets. Its vanilla; its 5 out of 10; its water; its white. i. e reliable, inoffensive and somewhat predictable. But it won't stand out from the crowd either (unless you just want to see Jennifer Aniston's bare backside).

Take a basic plot, one which many people can identify which, get a few 'stars' in it and Bob's your uncle. Studio will probably double its money (as it did with this) and the audience gets what it expects.

That said, whilst I didn't feel cheated, I didn't get much from it either. Vince Vaughn is always a good bet to even things up for the blokes (gets men more willing to watch these sort of chick flicks with their other half. Mind you, so will Jennifer Aniston).

The cast do what is asked and look like they are having fun. It doesn't feel a long film (there are plenty at 90 mins that seem interminable) and so if you are having a quiet evening in and your relationship isn't on shaky ground already then you could do worse than this.

Some actors get typecast pretty quickly. I think it’s fair to say that Jenifer Aniston is one. She readily plays the loveable, kooky happy-go-lucky characters in a will they/won’t they romantic relationship (and let’s face it – they always do).

I don’t normally watch romantic comedies. I find them predictable and identical (and rarely are any of them worthy of the ‘comedy’ half of their labelled genre). I was curious about The Break Up because I heard it didn’t subscribe to romantic comedies’ formula. And there’s a very good reason for this – that is because it’s NOT a romantic comedy.

Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn get together in the opening montage and break up about fifteen minutes into the film. I knew this before I watched it. Therefore, what I expected, was roughly another seventy-five minutes of laughs as the two central protagonists make each other’s lives hell.

However, what I got was simply two people being nasty to each other. Sadly, this is probably a lot more realistic than most rom-coms, and, upon watching it, I think I’d rather stick with the fantasy of boy meets girl and they live happily ever after.

The bottom line is that this film is more of a drama than a comedy – the jokes are few and far between. The scripted arguments may be accurate, but they’re not that nice to keep watching. It’s quite sexist too. Jenifer Aniston may be a bit uptight, but Vince Vaughn is a berk. The hardest thing to imagine is these two characters getting together in the first place and staying together long enough to even buy a house, let alone fight over who should keep it once they’ve split.

Bottom line – yes, it’s more ‘real’ than a romantic comedy, yet it has less comedic elements than even the most unfunny romantic comedy. It certainly doesn’t stick to the rom-com genre. For the first time in my life I find myself saying ‘Pity.’

It's a nice movie. Quite sad actually. Brought me to tears.

Somehow I wish it doesn't end that way. Jennifer's character's a little childish, from a girl's point of view, I just don't know why. But the acting's great. Good performance though.