The Break-Up (2006)

Summary: Gary, the part owner of a tour guide operation and Brooke, a art gallery manager meet at a baseball game in Chicago, and become an unlikely duo buying a luxury condo together. But Brooke is sophisticated woman and Gary is a bit of a slob, who prefers lying on the sofa playing video games to helping Brooks doing the domestics. Things come to a head after as difficult dinner party when Gary refuses to help with the washing up, and they break up. But their joint ownership of the condo results in them taking possession of different parts of the apartment with Gary intentionally making life difficult by importing a pool table into his bit and at one point having some sort of strip poker party. Brooke goes out on dates with other men, not always successfully.

Content:  Some almost nudity and quite  a bit of drinking of beer. Gary does his Chicago tourist guide stuff. He is the best in the business. Brooke is cool and attractive in the art galley, where some unusual art works are on display, including a statue of a man with a tap for a penis. The two of them argue a lot in their apartment. Gary meets with his friend Johnny who runs a bar and they talk a bit, Brooke talks on the phone and sometimes in person with her friend Addie, mostly complaining about Gary. There is a dinner party where the diners are encouraged to take part in an acapella song by their friend Mark.

A View: You will see that almost no-one liked this film, but it still made over $200 million at the box office. It is not funny, it is not dramatic. It is a sort of “Wars of the Roses” light, only existing in order to allow Jennifer Aniston to look attractive, in which it is extremely successful. But that’s not enough. Just a bit of an explanation about my scoring system. 5/10 is the sort of take it or leave it level, a film which is not much good but is inoffensive. Less than 5 give it a miss even though it might have some redeeming qualities. More than 5 well, OK. If I give it a 7 or more. Give it a go.

Jennifer Aniston has been in a lot of films since she left Friends. Three fun ones reviewed on this site are Horrible Bosses, We’re the Millers and the Adam Sandler outing Just Go with It.