MOVIE REVIEW: The Break Up
*SPOILERS AHEAD. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!*
With a title like 'The Break-Up' one cannot enter the movie theater or plop on the couch, and watch this flick anticipating a mushy cliché romantic love story. This love story gone brutally 'broken' stars Vince Vaughn (Gary) and Jennifer Aniston (Brooke). We only get a glimpse of their happy relationship, prior to the break up, through a montage of photographs during the opening credits. They are seen kissing, canoodling, hanging out with friends, and genuinely enjoying each others’ company. Once the opening credits end, their relationship pretty much does as well.
Brooke wants more appreciation from Gary regarding her hard labor around their spacious and beautiful condo (and of course the hard labor she puts into the relationship), while Gary just wants to relax and not have to deal with her nagging. After a family dinner at their apartment, Brooke concludes that she and Gary need to break up. Neither of them want to move out of their humble abode, so they spend the entire movie attempting to get each other envious and aggravated enough to move out first, which only provokes them more.
Finally, they agree to just sell the condo and part ways; Brooke decides to quit her job and travel around Europe to get her thoughts straightened out, while Gary goes on to successfully build a new branch to his Chicago tour guide business he shares with his brothers.
As I mentioned, this movie is called 'The Break-Up' not 'The Make-Up.' There is a reason that they separate in the end; it’s a relationship that burnt out. Even if everyone expected them to embrace and apologize for their wrong doings as they reluctantly walked out of their once-condo for the very last time, it didn’t happen. That kind of ending is considered “The Hollywood ending” –where everyone ends up happily ever after (the characters in the movie, and the audience watching the movie alike), so isn’t it refreshing that an ending was approached in a more realistic matter? I know there are people who agree with me on this one... Anyone? Someone?
Although it was blatantly clear that Brooke and Gary have gone their separate ways, there was a tiny implication that they might give their relationship a second chance during the last five minutes of the movie. We first see Gary on a boat explaining to the origin of Chicago’s nickname “The Second City” – he says that it was given to the city to commemorate a second chance it got after the Great Chicago Fire. Cut to, Gary and Brooke running into each other randomly a few months after their break up. They exchange small talk, but the small talk has an undertone of interest in one another that goes beyond platonic. As they promise to get together to catch up, they walk away, but turn around a few seconds later to glance at one another (Gary winks, Brooke smiles). Will they give their love a second chance in the second city? I guess we’ll never know (unless 'The Make-Up' is in the works – in that case, I would like to speak to the guys at Universal for a story credit, thank-you-very-much), but one thing I do know is that this movie was both laugh-out-loud funny (thanks to Vince Vaughn’s hilarious one-liners), sincere (thanks to Jennifer Aniston’s needy yet adorable attitude), and incredibly realistic thanks to the unconventional Hollywood ending.
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