Contrary to expectations, The Break Up is an anti-romantic comedy which wades through the emotional wreckage wrought by a young couple whose relationship seems doomed.
Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, who reportedly started dating while making Peyton Reed's film, are gifted comic actors but Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender's misfiring screenplay furnishes them with scant opportunity for merriment.
The writers are more concerned with the pain and bitterness of the ex-lovers and their ham-fisted attempts to make each other jealous.
The one saving grace is that the film doesn't fob us off with some happy ever after resolution to all of the misery.
As battles of the sexes go, The Break Up is a decidedly one-sided affair. The heroine is a sensitive domestic goddess who cooks and cleans, compensating for her man's failings to ensure a happy home. Her beau, in stark contrast, is a selfish oaf who would rather play video games.
We're so stunned by the obvious incompatibility of the two characters that we barely give a second thought to the idea they might get back together.
Art dealer Brooke Meyers (Aniston) has been dating Gary Grobowski (Vaughn), a Chicago bus tour guide, for two years. The honeymoon period is over and their once endearing foibles are starting to drive them to distraction.
After months of sniping and niggling rows, which build to a crescendo at a dinner party for the two families, Brooke finally terminates the relationship. Neither Brooke nor Gary wants to move out of the home they share so both parties engage in mental warfare to force their ex out on to the streets.
The tabloid rumour mongering that engulfed the making of The Break Up (Aniston's divorce from husband Brad Pitt and her subsequent romance with Vaughn) lends curiosity value to the film, if only to see whether the leading couple share any screen chemistry. They don't.
Movie double-acts come in all shapes and sizes ...and with varying degrees of success.
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