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Back Shelf Beauties
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The Break-Up I feel sorry for Jennifer Aniston. She has always appeared to me to be a hard working actress, who wants to prove she is a real, talented star, not just the girl who got lucky by starring on Friends. This was supposed to be Jennifer's big week with a potential blockbuster comedy that also stars her new beau (co-star Vince Vaughn), yet, Brangelina strikes again to haunt her life. Everywhere the lady goes this week, Jennifer will be stuck answering questions about Brad and Angelina's new kid, Shiloh (a/k/a The Most Beautiful Baby Ever Born), instead of promoting The Break-Up and talking about how it has changed her life and career. More people are talking about the baby than our talking about Aniston showing off her naked booty in the movie (by the way, her booty gets 4 Waffles)! It kind of makes me want to buy a ticket just to help her out, and stick it to Brad (seeing the booty again is just a fringe benefit). Vince Vaughn stars as Gary - a fun loving tour guide in Chicago, and Jennifer Aniston is Brooke - an art gallery dealer. The two fall deeply in love and buy a condo together, but living happily ever is starting to look like a fairy tale. Gary and Brooke have been growing apart and a recent fight looks like the end of the romance as they decide to break up. However, neither one wants to give up the growingly desirable and valuable condo. As they try to drive each other crazy and claim the home for their own, the audience is left to wonder if Gary and Brooke really want to end it for good. Whose side are you on? Will either get the condo? Will they truly break up?
The Break-Up is much like a real relationship as it starts off all hilarious and fun, but you are tearing your hair out by the end. Writers Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender start strong with crazy situations full of funny characters, like a tense dinner between Brooke and Gary's families or an early morning music group practice, which often give Vaughn a chance to steal the spotlight as he gets the best lines and has that special, manic personality that has you laughing so much you forget where the scene started. However, The Break-Up starts to suffer as we move towards and into the third act. Garelick and Lavender take us through the beginning of the relationship with a cute way to have Gary and Brooke meet, then excel with the rough times, as man and woman go to battle while receiving all sorts of funny advice from friends and family. Eventually, Garelick and Lavender impose a forced ending that goes on and on and gets much too serious. Some seriousness is needed, and Aniston and Vaughn handle it well, but it becomes too much as everything is drawn out too long after we know where it is all going, and our fun little comedy becomes a soap opera complete with Brooke and Gary screaming at each other with more vitriol than you would find on The Sopranos or 24. Vaughn is great as always, sometimes carrying the movie on his back, when the story starts to go awry. He gets the best lines, so Aniston is left with a decent part, which she delivers like a solid pro, but she doesn't get as much of a chance to show her comedic ability. She gets stuck with the stereotypical girly, emotional parts of the movie, while Vaughn makes us laugh and shows some of those dramatic abilities we saw early in his career in movies like A Cool Dry Place. The two work together well, but Vaughn is given too many advantages, and shows up Aniston through no fault of her own. Garelick, Lavender and director Peyton Reed should have beefed up her part. The film also is full of great supporting actors like Peter "A Christmas Story" Billingsley (who has not shot his eye out) as a henpecked husband, Jason Bateman as the realtor/friend, Joey Lauren-Adams as Brooke's confidant and Jon Favreau as Gary's best buddy, who is still single and kind of nuts. Even actors with just a few scenes are fantastically funny, like John Michael Higgins as Brooke's flamboyant brother (the one in all of the TV commercials). However, the worst performance in the movie comes from Judy Davis as Brooke's boss, Marilyn Dean - the art gallery's bigger than life, witchy owner. The role is too big for Davis, who never takes the character to the zany extremes needed. Where's Joan Collins, Shirley MacLaine or Teri Garr when you need her? Finally, something in The Break-Up was driving me crazy, and I have to get it out of my system. Reed needed to kick someone in the butt to make sure Vaughn had the same hair style throughout the whole movie. Sometimes, he has a Julius Caesar-type cut, and other times he has a more blow dry look. Sadly, it switches from scene to scene, even when scenes are suppose to have taken place in the same night. It's one of those little things that stands out in a big way and makes you wonder if everyone was giving 100%. I'll give everyone involved some credit for a daring ending, but most may have given up on the movie by then. 2 Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2006 - WaffleMovies.com
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