The Break-Up
(2006) dir. Peyton Reed
viewed: 06/06/06 at the CineArts @ Empire Theater, SF, CA
Billed and marketed and most likely intended to be a comedy, The Break-Up is starkly unfunny. Unlike many comedies that are utterly lacking in humor, this film doesn’t crash and burn in typical terms. Ultimately, what unfolds is more like a drama, the bitterness and distance that can build in a relationship, until it explodes and takes over. It’s downright depressing. Yet, not horribly bad.
The Break-Up doesn’t perform breakthrough analysis of relationships. It merely strikes chords that probably a lot of people can relate to. That, and Vince Vaughn’s character is mostly an out and out lout, making Jennifer Anniston’s character a feckless victim in the relationship war. The events are escalated by friends with bad advice, social pressure, and tons of short-sightedness.
What should have probably been a hysterical comedy, which from trailers it seemed that it could be, rather turns out to be a downright downer of a movie, a non-polemic criticism of relationships.
