Review of "The Break-Up," DVD version starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston

Review of

The Break-Up, DVD version starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston

Three out of five stars

 While the case claims that this is a “charming and unpredictable comedy,” only one of those three words actually apply. The applicable word is unpredictable, at least regarding the ending. This movie is about a couple breaking up amid tensions, antagonisms and downright petty tits for tats. Vince Vaughn plays Gary, narrator on a double decker tour bus in Chicago and a member of the working class. Jennifer Aniston plays Brooke and she works at a high-level art gallery.

 They share an expensive condo and the relationship is falling apart, Gary is very much into sports, video games, bowling and drinking. Brooke is much more highbrow, she loves ballet and other cultural movements and their friends and families are very different. In many ways the viewer asks the question, “How did these two get together in the first place?” For they seem to have nothing in common.

 Although they still share the same living quarters, the break-up is truly ugly, it is hard to see how people will find what they do to each other comical. The only amusing scene is when Brooke walks naked through the apartment and the expressions on Gary’s and her face as she does so speak paragraphs of quality dialog.

 While much of the action in the middle is predictable after you realize what these two will do to each other, the ending is not. Yet, it is in many ways the way once close relationships should end and the people move on with their lives.