Break-Up

I'm not entirely sure what kind of movie The Break Up was trying to be. If it is a romantic comedy it doesn't make me laugh or yearn for the couple to get back together. If it is a dark comedy about break ups, it just isn't vicious enough. Both the main characters still seem to care about one another, well as much as two can when the actors playing them have no on screen chemistry that I could discern.

Most of the movie had me thinking that Love Stinks (1999) was a better movie than this. At the very minimum it at least made me laugh. Actually even the fact that both movies star Jason Bateman in a supporting role made me wonder. Love Stinks wasn't really vicious either, the things the exes do to each other are ludicrous but you can feel the visceral hatred between the two as they act and that is why it works. This film could have been really good, if it had truly been about a break up and all the ugliness that can entail. It might not have been fun to watch, but it would have been honest.