The Break-Up

Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston have little chemistry in The Break-Up.

Herald rating: * *

Does this scene from The Break-Up ring any bells? Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, who have since gone on to real-life coupledom, are sitting at opposite ends of a couch as a guy counsels them on the collapse of their relationship.

It wasn't so long ago Brangelina did the same in Mr and Mrs Smith, only their version was sexy and entertaining.

For a film billed as a romantic comedy, The Break-Up has a surprising lack of either. After a promising start, in which Vaughn dispenses with the majority of the film's punchlines, the trouble starts.

Live-in couple Brooke and Gary then spend almost two hours shouting at each other through a script as dull as the married couple next door.

He leaves his dirty socks around the house; she nags him about it. He doesn't appreciate the meals she cooks; she won't let him have a pool table.

In the middle of yet another drawn-out fight about the fundamentals of any break-up, you have to wonder, what's new? A lack of rom-com cliches, sure. But that's not enough to keep this ball rolling.

Even the characters who try desperately to inject the film with humour - Vaughn's old Swingers mate Jon Favreau as Gary's bartending buddy, Judy Davis as Brooke's diva of an art gallery boss and Christopher Guest as Brooke's camp, a cappella-singing brother - seem out of place as the tone lurches from serious to silly.

The film's redeeming quality is its two leads but most of their chemistry shows up in the opening sequence of happy snaps and then descends into something angry and asexual.

Aniston, in particular, knows how a break-up goes. When Brooke breaks down over her man - he really seems to be missing a "sensitivity chip" - she gives a scarily real performance. Vaughn's verbal diarrhoea is as good as ever. But any couple arguing quickly gets tedious.

For a film that had so much potential, this is one long break-up indeed.

CAST: Jennifer Aniston, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Bateman
DIRECTOR: Peyton Reed
RUNNING TIME: 106 mins
RATING: Yet to be classified
SCREENING: Village, Berkeley