A screen study of why men just don’t get women
CAIRO: A romantic comedy staring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn sounds like a perfect lighthearted date flick, but actually “The Break-up explores the darker side of love, so it might be best to avoid it on a first date.
The film opens with Garry (Vaughn) hitting on Brooke (Aniston) at a Cubs baseball game. They fall in love and move in together. The romantic couple enjoys two blissful years together, and all this takes place during the film s opening credits.
Garry is a lazy, inconsiderate man; Aniston is a needy, nagging woman. She expects him to be more considerate and help her with the daily household chores, but he’d much rather watch sports on his widescreen TV.
Bang! Brooke snaps and they break-up.
The film takes off at this point, as neither of them want to move out of the condominium, and thus the battle of the ex s begins, turning the house into a war zone- the living room being his territory and the bedroom hers.
Although Brooke tries to make his life a living hell – bringing men home, walking around the apartment naked to show him what he can’t have anymore – it is actually a masterplan to “change him into the man she wants him to be.
Garry, who is oblivious of Brooke’s cunning underlying plan, counters her little ploys by bringing in a pool table, some slovenly friends and getting her date to hang-out on the couch with him instead of taking her out.
These bits make for good comedy, and as the two are popular comedians, they pull-off the film on their own. The supporting cast, on the other hand, is quite trite and unmemorable.
Aniston, as expected, is almost a replica of Rachel Green from Friends, since she hasn’t quite learned to play another role (with the exception of The Good Girl (2002) where she played a lonely store clerk who strikes up an affair with a stock boy who considers himself the incarnation of Holden Caulfield – a role she should never try again). That’s okay though, as everybody loves quirky, well-dressed Rachel.
Vaughn plays a tour guide on a Chicago bus, who basically doubles as a stand-up comedian for the tourists. His character is a self-centered smart alec with a pot belly and an obsession for video games; but you can’t help but smile when he’s on screen. Again, like Aniston, he has one role that he plays very well: the charmingly thoughtless, funny boy.
The film may be a disappointment for those expecting a new age “When Harry Met Sally because the romance element is not that strong. Although rumor has it that the two fell in love on the set of this film, it definitely doesn’t show as the sparks aren’t flying.
The strength of the film is perhaps the reality of it, that not all relationships have happy endings. It also reflects a well-known theory, that men and women just don’t get each other. This film focuses on the concept that men don’t understand what women want, and women fail to explain it until it’s too late.
