#32: The Break-Up
The Break-Up may be the weirdest Hollywood romantic comedy of all time. It doesn't shy away from its title at all. It really is about a break up. An awkward, uncomfortable, protracted break up. For that, it deserves credit, because its a pretty brave and bold inversion of what the viewer expects. But there's a reason romantic comedies don't usually feature two people who don't seem to like each other.
Besides a short prologue showing the meet cute between our leads, Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston, at a Cubs game, there's almost nothing to establish these people as an actual couple. Sure, there's a dinner party with their respective families (including very funny supporting turns by John Michael Higgins and Vincent D'Onofrio (yes, him!) that almost feel like they're from a different, broader movie). But immediately after that dinner, we have a historic and realistic row between the two - an argument that is viscerally acted and plays out unrelentingly in real time. The upshot of the fight is (you guessed it), a break up. Problem is: these two co-own a pretty killer Chicago condo and neither wants to give it up. Also: maybe, okay, yeah, they still have feelings for each other a little bit. So they break up but keep living together while kinda sorta dating other people, which works out about as well you expect. A series of misunderstandings and things left unsaid eventually drives them further and further apart and they really, truly break up.
There's an ambiguous run in between the two at the end that suggests maybe the spark could be rekindled. But (admirably) the film leaves it at that.
A few weeks ago, there was a story on This American Life about a couple that had been together since they were in college. Turning 30 and thinking about marriage, they decide to put it off for 30 days so that can sleep with some other people for the first time. They called it their "rumspringa." 30 days turns into 60, then 90, and then they go their separate ways. Towards the end of the interview, the guy being interviewed suggests that if he ever gets married, he would want to have the marriage either renew and void every seven years to make sure both are still in. Ira Glass recoils at that and makes a great point:
I don't know what I think of that. Because I think, actually, one of the things that's a comfort in marriage is that there isn't a door at seven years. And so if something is messed up in the short-term, there's a comfort of knowing, well, we made this commitment. And so we're just going to work this out. And even if tonight we're not getting along or there's something between us that doesn't feel right, you have the comfort of knowing, we've got time. We're going to figure this out. And that makes it so much easier. Because you do go through times when you hate each other's guts. You know what I mean?
Watching The Break-Up again, this statement feels very, very true. The fights in this movie feel like fights we've all had with each other over the years (notice the use of the royal "we" here: I, of course, never fight with my beloved and adored better half). The reason Vaughn and Aniston don't make it work here is because they have an out. They don't say the things they would say to patch things over or smooth things out if they felt compelled to make it work. So they end up passing each other (CLICHE ALERT) like ships at night, over and over.
It's an interesting movie. Occassionally funny. Honest in its intra-couple vitriol. Tonally, a little all over the place. Worth watching once or twice. But not worth owning. In fact, I have no idea why or when we bought it.
FINAL VERDICT: PITCH
NEXT UP: BRIDESMAIDS
No comments:
Post a Comment