.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

At the Movies with Mike Lippert:

Sometimes I wonder about a films ability to affect our lives. Most people simply go to kick back and enjoy, to fill time on a rainy Saturday night, to bring the family together for a short while. I could how films like Adaptation, All the Real Girls and La Dolce Vita could change lives, leave viewers with a thought, a possible new direction in life. But what about a film like the Break-Up, which goes in two opposing directions while trying to deal with unpleasant subject? It feels counterproductive.
Yet most people will go to see it because Vince Vaughn is a funny guy, Jennifer Aniston is a real charmer, and the battle of the sexes has and probably will always draw people to the theaters. As I sat there in the theater I heard people remake "that's something you would say," with a chuckle. I Laughed too, why not? Vince Vaughn is a funny guy, Jennifer Aniston is….
As a comedy the film sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. It works because it stars people who are substantially more talented than what they are given to do. It doesn't work because it puts the audience in an awkward position. It makes us the third wheel in a situation that we don't want to be involved with in the first place.
Brooke (Aniston) works hard at an art gallery, comes home to slave in the kitchen cooking a meal for her family. Gary comes home with three lemons in a bag. "What's this?" She asks. "My baby wanted lemons and my baby gets what my baby wants," he replies. Turns out baby wanted twelve lemons to make a centerpiece. He doesn't understand, why would she want twelve lemons when no one is even going to be eating them. He has a solution; the chicken she is cooking could use some lemon. Two birds with one stone.
Gary and Brooke don't break up because of lemons. They break up because after a hard day of taking people on bus tours of Chicago, Gary wants to come home, put his feet up, play video games, and not be constantly nagged by Brooke. Gary thinks he is a hard worker who believes Brooke should appreciate the time he puts in so that their relationship is economically sound. Brooke is also a hard worker who could support the relationship herself and wishes Gary would grow up, take some responsibility and put a little effort into the relationship to make her feel appreciated.
I like how the film doesn't take sides. Gary and Brooke are both instigators and both victims of their own ignorance. In a sense they deserve each other. There's an irony to life when it comes to these situations. It doesn't matter how much you fight with someone, as long as you love them, there is a reason to go on hating them. The mind doesn't allow us to think like that though, you don't tell people that some of the happiest moments in your life were when your loved one was making you miserable.
The problem with Brooke and Gary is that they're both clingers. They can't figure out how to divide the assets, so they decide to live together, continue sharing the same friends, and trying as hard as possible to make the other party miserable.
But you see, when Brooke breaks up with Gary she still loves him, assumes he will come to his senses and the relationship can continue in a better direction. It doesn't, and the centre of the film becomes a comedy of one-upsmanship as the two try to make each other jealous, not because they are spiteful people, but because they love each other. If only they could just let go, they would be a lot happier, their friends would be a lot happier, we'd be a lot happier and would have saved around two hours and five dollars.
The Break-Up begins and ends as a funny and truthful film that shows what it is like to live through those definitive moments in life when you realize all the mistakes you've made, and all the ways you think you can make up for them, but it's too late. All you can do now is reflect and hope to do better next time.
In a sense, I almost wish that the film had remained a dumb sitcom from front to back, I could then forget about it and get on with my life, but it doesn't. It tries going deeper and getting to the emotional heart of what it is like to break up, and that's unsettling even if the film seems to be rushing to find easy conclusions at times. I hate to fault a film for at least trying to display realism, but the Break-Up, has individual moments that are so good that they belong in a film that can take them seriously. I just can't recommend it. I would have rather not seen them in the first place.