Dir. Peyton Reed, US, 2006, 107 mins
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston
Review by Carol Allen
Despite being written and directed by guys (Reed plus first time writing duo Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender), from talking to blokes who've seen it this is, I suspect, a girl's movie. Even though, despite being billed as a romantic comedy, it's the antithesis of romance and the comedy is distinctly wry and rather sad.
As you'll have guessed from the title, the story is not about how boy meets and wins girl, but about how boy and girl break up. After a prologue showing the start of the relationship, when Gary (Vaughn) cheekily charms Brooke (Aniston) away from her dreary date at a baseball game, we do a quick credit sequence gallop via a photo montage through what looks like an idyllic relationship, ending up two years later, where they're giving a dinner party for her family, and we start to detect the underlying tensions. These then explode into a massive escalating row after the guests have gone, culminating with the decision to split up. While getting us to the meat of the story quickly, this does mean the explosion comes totally out of the blue - maybe they were having little squabbles before, when the family photographer wasn't around? What that early scene does do though is effectively capture those little irritations that can niggle in a relationship until they become unbearable.
As they are in the not uncommon situation of buying their apartment, the couple are forced to continue living together until they can realise their asset, but the story's not just about the haggle over property but about the games people play, particularly in this case Brooke. Neither of them, it's clear, really wants to break up, but she in particular plays futile game after manipulative game to get him to admit he's in the wrong and to change his ways. The writing's pretty perceptive on communication problems between men and women, when it comes to intimate relationships and how to destroy them. Anyone old or young, who's been round the block once or twice, will probably find themselves giving the odd nod of wry recognition. It’s almost couples therapy in the form of entertainment.
Vaughn and Aniston bicker very effectively together and there are good supporting performances from Ann-Margret as Aniston's mum, of whom I could have done with more, Judy Davis as her scarily vampish art gallery owner boss; John Michael Higgins, her sexually ambiguous brother whose passion is his all male a cappella group The Tone Rangers, and Jon Favreau as Vaughn's slobby best mate, who gives him the worst advice ever. It’s also not predictable. I had no idea whether we were going to get the expected Hollywood style happy ending or not.
|
