MovieChat Forums > The Break-Up (2006) Discussion > Just watched it: My take

Just watched it: My take


It was okay, had some funny parts in it but was not remarkable enough to justifiy a nearly 2 hour run time; 1 hour 46 minutes I think. Given the content, I can only see 1 hour and 20 minute being justified; because of the time it felt like it was dragging out and going in circles.

Also some of the down sides of the film; the characters are very much unlikable, in their own ways; but Gary (Vaughn's character) is so awful he has almost no redeeming qualities. He starts off a total douche and then just worse as the movie goes on. It leaves one wondering why she even wanted to get him to 'realize he wanted to come back to her'. It made it too cut and dry, he really was awful and lazy and took people for granted, and he takes too long to realize it which ends up being the deciding factor. That is what they were going for in the film but the problem is it made it all too one sided and therefor uninteresting. It is almost like he is a villain but the film doesn't actually use him as the stories antagonist.

I think one of the only ways they could have made it interesting was to have it turn out that it was actually him that wanted to end the relationship all along (which is why he was being such an asshole to her) and when she does the initial break up he totally is 100% on board and doesn't even care that she actually wants to get back together. That would at least justify how he acted. The way it is in the film, he is just a stupid, dense, selfish, douchebag. At least at the end they show him starting to develop a character arc but it is in the last 10 minutes of the film, and like his relationship, by then it was too late for the audience to care.

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