The Break-Up - 2006 - Film

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Watching Vince Vaughn get genuinely mad and scream at poor Jen Aniston is the most unsettling thing I've seen in awhile. Okay, so it wasn't really "Vince Vaughn" doing the dirty work, but he is the one reason I was excited to see The Break-Up--for the sweetness that highlights his sarcasm. His humor doesn't usually have a mean, condescending aim to it, but this time his character, Gary, was plain vindictive to his ex-girlfriend Brooke (Aniston).

I waited a long time to see the two exes fumble through the post-break-up woes, to watch them pine for each other long after it seems their relationship cannot be reconciled. But what happened instead were extended scenes of hateful and jealous screaming matches, long-takes where their anger was allowed to grow to the point that the two degrade each other's basic character until I wondered why they were ever committed in the first place.

The ex-couple's emotional and financial attachment to their condo is the hinge that supposedly forces them to remain living together, and that again reminded me that these two do not indeed belong together when their joint property value is the sole thing bonding them. Sitting in the theater it felt like witnessing an awkward flight between lovers. Rarely were there moments that mocked the irrational words and gesture of a break-up; constantly the audience had to sit through the misery of Gary and Brooke's fights that offered no perspective on these times when emotions run at an all-time high. I felt like I broke-up myself. I called my boyfriend as soon as I walked out of the theater. Sigh of relief, we're still together.