Movie Review Black Los Angeles

BlackNLA Movie Reviews

*****THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****

by Edwardo Jackson

BIASES: late 20s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

THE BREAK-UP (PG-13)

MOVIE BIASES: As if heartbreak weren't universal marketing enough, this movie is EVERYWHERE.

MAJOR PLAYERS: Vince Vaughn (Swingers), Jennifer Aniston (Derailed), Joey Lauren Adams (Chasing Amy), Jon Favreau (Swingers), and directed by Peyton Reed (Down with Love)

Part owner in his brothers' Chicago tour bus company as "the talent," tall, pudgy, engagingly self-centered Polack Gary Grobowski (Vaughn) has somehow snagged WASPy, erudite art gallery manager Brooke Meyers (Aniston), with whom he shares a spacious, Pier One-meets-Best Buy-looking condo. A mismatched pair for sure - she favors making art and lemon-themed centerpieces while he's a beer-swilling, couch potato of a sports enthusiast - Gary and Brooke finally meet their breaking point after a dinner with their two divergent families. Although the
argument seems trivial, the basis for is not, and Brooke dumps Gary in an attempt to get him to shape up or ship out. Well, Gary doesn't ship anywhere, staking a claim in the living room while Brooke defends the bedroom, turning their common areas and common friends into an emotional war zone designed to get the other to give up their stake in the condo.

Unlike so many of those arguments with loved ones that we've all had, "The Break-Up" is a realistically scripted crack-up. Niftily directed with more thematic coherence from Reed this time than in his period piece rom-com clunker "Down with Love," "The Break-Up" is a 21st century "War of the Roses" where the prize may still be the house but the battlefield is purely the heart. The Jeremy Garelick & Jay
Lavender script brims with entertaining, relationship psychobabble that we've all heard before but presented in amusing new ways with interesting set pieces (examples of their battle of wills involves strip Texas Hold 'em Poker and a Brazilian wax called the "Telly Savalas"). Invariably, the best parts of the script and the movie are the fights, where Vaughn and Aniston joust and parry with (too?) familiar ease.

Much has been made over the real life shenanigans of Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, how "The Break-Up" might suffer from life imitating art. Nothing but professional, comedic work here, baby: Aniston and Vaughn's chemistry is okay, but not distracting one way or the other. Aniston's classy, exacting Brooke "wants him to want to" do stuff while Vaughn's laissez-faire, charmingly guy-centric narcissist Gary wants nothing more than to play video games and watch his sports
highlights in relative peace. It's an amiable partnership, but a surprisingly doughy (he packed on 25 pounds for the part) Vaughn is still funnier by nature, due to his high-pitched, motormouth, ad-lib patter. His Gary also has more growth to do, battling his own arrested emotional development to clarify what he wants out of life, if not out of Brooke. As usual, Vaughn, somewhere in the area code of the top of
his game, seduces with his nutty nattering and male bravado while Aniston is believable but not quite brilliant (I liked her more in "Derailed" and "The Good Girl").

With Jon Favreau's assertive pessimism as Gary's jaded best friend and John Michael Higgins as Brooke's closeted-in-plain sight, "Tone Rangers" a cappella singer of a brother (with that memorable, highly teased rendition of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" in all the commercials), Aniston and Vaughn aren't alone. Accompanying them on "The Break-Up" are all of our own totally relatable fears and loathings from previous (or current?) experience. Never let anyone close enough to hurt you? Appreciate the value of clear communication? Sabotage relationships in
order to make them right? Even if this doesn't sound like you, you know someone it does sound like. Which is why "The Break-Up" is so easy to do.

@@@ REELS
(THREE REELS)
It's pretty hot – go give it a shot.

Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com!

Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com




			BlackNLA Movie Reviews ***THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*** by Edwardo Jackson BIASES: late 20s black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare THE BREAK-UP (PG-13) MOVIE BIASES: As if heartbreak weren't universal marketing enough, this movie is EVERYWHERE. MAJOR PLAYERS: Vince Vaughn (Swingers), Jennifer Aniston (Derailed), Joey Lauren Adams (Chasing Amy), Jon Favreau (Swingers), and directed by Peyton Reed (Down with Love) Part owner in his brothers' Chicago tour bus company as "the talent," tall, pudgy, engagingly self-centered Polack Gary Grobowski (Vaughn) has somehow snagged WASPy, erudite art gallery manager Brooke Meyers (Aniston), with whom he shares a spacious, Pier One-meets-Best Buy-looking condo. A mismatched pair for sure - she favors making art and lemon-themed centerpieces while he's a beer-swilling, couch potato of a sports enthusiast - Gary and Brooke finally meet their breaking point after a dinner with their two divergent families. Although the argument seems trivial, the basis for is not, and Brooke dumps Gary in an attempt to get him to shape up or ship out. Well, Gary doesn't ship anywhere, staking a claim in the living room while Brooke defends the bedroom, turning their common areas and common friends into an emotional war zone designed to get the other to give up their stake in the condo. Unlike so many of those arguments with loved ones that we've all had, "The Break-Up" is a realistically scripted crack-up. Niftily directed with more thematic coherence from Reed this time than in his period piece rom-com clunker "Down with Love," "The Break-Up" is a 21st century "War of the Roses" where the prize may still be the house but the battlefield is purely the heart. The Jeremy Garelick & Jay Lavender script brims with entertaining, relationship psychobabble that we've all heard before but presented in amusing new ways with interesting set pieces (examples of their battle of wills involves strip Texas Hold 'em Poker and a Brazilian wax called the "Telly Savalas"). Invariably, the best parts of the script and the movie are the fights, where Vaughn and Aniston joust and parry with (too?) familiar ease. Much has been made over the real life shenanigans of Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, how "The Break-Up" might suffer from life imitating art. Nothing but professional, comedic work here, baby: Aniston and Vaughn's chemistry is okay, but not distracting one way or the other. Aniston's classy, exacting Brooke "wants him to want to" do stuff while Vaughn's laissez-faire, charmingly guy-centric narcissist Gary wants nothing more than to play video games and watch his sports highlights in relative peace. It's an amiable partnership, but a surprisingly doughy (he packed on 25 pounds for the part) Vaughn is still funnier by nature, due to his high-pitched, motormouth, ad-lib patter. His Gary also has more growth to do, battling his own arrested emotional development to clarify what he wants out of life, if not out of Brooke. As usual, Vaughn, somewhere in the area code of the top of his game, seduces with his nutty nattering and male bravado while Aniston is believable but not quite brilliant (I liked her more in "Derailed" and "The Good Girl"). With Jon Favreau's assertive pessimism as Gary's jaded best friend and John Michael Higgins as Brooke's closeted-in-plain sight, "Tone Rangers" a cappella singer of a brother (with that memorable, highly teased rendition of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" in all the commercials), Aniston and Vaughn aren't alone. Accompanying them on "The Break-Up" are all of our own totally relatable fears and loathings from previous (or current?) experience. Never let anyone close enough to hurt you? Appreciate the value of clear communication? Sabotage relationships in order to make them right? Even if this doesn't sound like you, you know someone it does sound like. Which is why "The Break-Up" is so easy to do. @@@ REELS (THREE REELS) It's pretty hot – go give it a shot. Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com! Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com © 2004, Edwardo Jackson