Eugene Weekly : Movie Review : 06.08.06

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After the Fall

A romantic comedy without the romance

BY JASON BLAIR

THE BREAK-UP: Directed by Peyton Reed. Written by Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender. Cinematography by Eric Alan Edwards. Starring Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston, Joey Lauren Adams, Cole Hauser, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Judy Davis, Vincent D'Onofrio, John Michael Higgins and Ann-Margaret. Universal Studios, 2006. PG-13. 105 minutes.

Baseball and breaking up: Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston partake in America's pastimes.

Romantic comedies, like letter openers, may someday be obsolete. It takes a high degree of skill to make a good romantic comedy, partly because falling in love is both profound and profoundly silly. (Think of something you've said under the influence of love. Now imagine your little brother overhearing you.) The various emotional states of new love require a delicately balanced tone, and if last year's Spanglish is an example of anything, we're not getting any better at it.

In a good romantic comedy, like 1997's Chasing Amy, you can feel each obstacle thwarting the lovers' progress. (In Chasing Amy, Joey Lauren Adams is a lesbian, but Ben Affleck reveals his affection anyway.) The Break-Up is a good romantic comedy, but with a twist: In this case, the obstacle is Gary (Vince Vaughn), an underachieving tour guide with a girlfriend who's running out of patience.

Brooke (Jennifer Aniston) deserves more than Gary's offering, a fact she realizes early in the film. Having run out of ways to motivate him, she calls off their relationship. The break-up stuns Gary, but he refuses to acknowledge it, so Brooke decides to play hardball by refusing to move out. She'll start a new life right before his eyes, which she assumes will bring Gary back.

If The Break-Up sounds formulaic, it's anything but. It's a romantic comedy without much romance. The movie makes a number of wry observations, especially about how there's no shortage of bad advice from people who should know Brooke and Gary better. It's a Vince Vaughn picture, so it's hilarious in places, never more so than when Brooke's brother Richard (John Michael Higgins), a member of the Tone Rangers choral group, confronts Gary with an a capella "Owner of a Lonely Heart." Gary's best friend Johnny (Jon Favreau) provides knucklehead laughs throughout. But equally common are the tense, disruptive moments between Brooke and Gary. Their respective small victories slowly break their relationship apart.

Only storybook couples won't relate to the scenes of Gary neglecting Brooke in favor of playing Grand Theft Auto. Or Brooke dating another man to make Gary jealous. Or Brooke asking their bowling team — by show of hands, with Gary present — to drop Gary when he won't leave voluntarily. (On second thought, I hope you can't relate to that.) Brooke and Gary each want their former life for themselves, if only to convince the other of what's at stake. Finally, predictably, the apartment itself must be negotiated. The battle of wills must end, but not the way you expect.

Vaughn is a little more subdued than usual. This material requires more focus, and less of the riffing that made the second half of Wedding Crashers so loose (and so hysterical). Aniston turns lemons into lemonade here. (Brooke's lemon centerpiece doesn't fare quite so well.) She manages to prevent Brooke from seeming like easy prey while still making her endlessly patient.

This is an emotional turf war, a War of the Roses (1989) for the unmarried set, and it's largely worthy of the hype that preceded it.