The Break-Up 2006

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Listening to people bicker for almost two hours wears thin, especially when the comedy is never quite so funny as you had hoped it would be. Read more

Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune: We're not talking Ingmar Bergman here, but suffice it to say that audiences expecting a raucous Vince Vaughn comedy (in the mold of, say, Old School) will find themselves laughing less than they'd hoped. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: One seemingly terminal problem with the casting of Ms. Aniston and Mr. Vaughn is that neither of their careers has featured characters who excelled at one-to-one relationships with the opposite sex. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: It's full of pain and quirky characters standing at oblique angles to one another, and while it doesn't add up it held me throughout. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It's not a good sign when a movie is called The Break-Up and you can't wait for the couple to split so they'll get some relief from one another, and give the audience some relief from them. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The Break-Up, a grim excuse for a romantic comedy, is basically an hour and 45 minutes spent in the company of two unpleasant people during a miserable time in their lives. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Vince Vaughn kills me. Jennifer Aniston, I think, is underrated as a film actress. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Watching these likable actors flounder around as they try to save a picture that's not worth saving is, well, depressing. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: It's like watching the 'we were on a break' episode of Friends stretched to feature length... Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: The Break-Up is a refreshingly different romantic comedy, one that doesn't so much rely on gimmicks as on digging around for genuine feelings. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The Break-Up mostly just lies there -- alternately adoring and condemning its characters for their puppyish refusal to grow up. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: Director Peyton Reed doesn't quite bring the sharpness, litheness and attention to detail he brought to Bring It On and Down With Love to The Break-Up, which is nonetheless alternately funny and painful. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: It might not be the frosted lemon tart that's been advertised for months, but it is solid, satisfying fare -- flecked with humor, grounded in pain. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: If, as the ads would lead you to believe, you go to see The Break-Up expecting a romantic comedy, you will be severely disappointed. If you go to it expecting a good movie, you will also be severely disappointed. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: If 7 Up is the un-cola, consider The Break-Up, -- the un-romantic comedy. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: As an off-beat anatomy of a troubled couple, the film almost succeeds. As summer movie fun well, it's not. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: This one, in every sense, is fake. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: If you really feel the need to be bullied and insulted, just call up your HMO provider or reserve a table at an expensive restaurant. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Like so many contemporary movies, The Break-Up doesn't know when to call it quits, and the film finally expires after several false endings. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: When they break up, which happens pretty early in this self-professed 'anti-romantic comedy,' it doesn't seem tragic. It just makes sense. Read more

Joe Donnelly, L.A. Weekly: To call it erratic would be to imply there was a course it went off, but the film's intentions are impossible to fathom. It's a romantic comedy in which the romance comes stillborn and in which the comedy barely exists. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: The Break-Up fails to freshen the stale news that women are from Venus and men are from Mars. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie plays like Scenes From a Marriage for 14-year-olds. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: A romantic comedy that's short on both romance and comedy. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: I don't know if The Break-Up qualifies as a date movie. But it will serve as a cautionary tale for couples falling in love. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: In short, The Break-Up is too accurate to be light-hearted, too light and flippant to be really romantic. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Break-Up is too badly fractured to be deemed repairable. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: For the movie to work, we would have to like the couple and want them to succeed. Despite some sincere 11th-hour soul-searching by Gary, we're sorry, but we don't want them back together, we want them to end their misery. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: The Break-Up doesn't know whether it wants to be a facile, enjoyable date movie or an unnerving examination of the dark, pockmarked underbelly of everything we expect out of romantic relationships. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The movie offers nothing funny, just a series of sour situations. Read more

Michael Agger, Slate: There's no reason not to see The Break-Up, but there's also no reason, assuming the date is going well, not to skip it and order dessert. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The Break-Up goes badly wrong. Although possessed of a laudable desire not to be yet another run-of-the-mill, wacky-impediment -- damned if the picture can figure out how to be an anti-romance comedy. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It's the most interesting spin on domestic strife since Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner were hurling dishes at each other in The War of the Roses. Read more

Anna Smith, Time Out: Sharp dialogue and detailed observations make it a good deal funnier than you might expect. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: If you value your time and your relationship, don't see this on a date. Read more

Brian Lowry, Variety: Ill-conceived virtually from the opening frame as a self-described 'anti-romantic comedy.' Read more

Carla Blumenkranz, Village Voice: Their trademark good guy and girl blow their mutual affability in a dull show of falling apart. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Nobody likes a fixed fight, except the backroom boys making the deal. Which is why The Break-Up may have its share of laughs, but isn't much fun. Read more