So I lied when I said the second Scrubs post would be next. GC and I watched The Break-Up last night and I wanted to jot down my thoughts on it before I forgot; Scrubs I’ve got on DVD, this was a one-night OnDemand rental. So.
The premise: Gary (Vince Vaughn) and Brooke (Jennifer Anniston) break up and fight over who gets their super-nice condo. At least, that’s how it was described; in reality, it was less about the condo and more about how they cope with still living together after they break up. GC and I decided to watch it because it was about the only thing we could agree on: we wanted something entertaining and not too demanding, since it was late and we both had to work in the morning; he likes Vaughn and I adore Anniston, so it seemed like a good idea. I was fully prepared for the movie to be horrible; that’s kind of what we were in the mood for. So with that in mind, the movie was better than expected (though I wouldn’t go so far as to say “good”).
What did surprise me about the movie was that Brooke was, by far, the more sympathetic character. I had figured they’d both be pretty equally terrible, though it was clear from the first scene that Gary was…well, a dick. We start with their meet-cute at a baseball game, where he more or less forces her to let him buy her a hotdog and then harasses her as she tries to leave; from these “wacky” beginnings, apparently, romance sprang. (“Wacky,” in this case meaning, “Why did he feel so entitled to date her when she clearly turned him down repeatedly, I kind of want to slap him from the get-go,” or something along those lines. It didn’t strike me as cute, it struck me as street harassment.) So it was no shock that, when we skipped down the line to see how their relationship ended, it was in large part because yeah, Gary was a dick. But at the same time, it felt disturbingly real; they were fighting about problems like whose turn it was to do the dishes and how he didn’t like her decorations. It was clear to the watcher that the real problems were with her feeling unappreciated and him not realizing there was an issue at all, but the characters’ inability to explain how they felt was very human. So instead of discussing and resolving problems, the fight elevated into a break-up, and the rest of the movie dealt with the characters’ reactions to it.
Specifically, we see Brooke’s reaction. She is highly conflicted: on the one hand, she knows she deserves better, and that she shouldn’t be a cook, cleaner, and event planner for her boyfriend — especially not when he never thanks her, never helps her, and is never willing to sacrifice his own time to do what she wants. On the other hand, she truly cares about him and doesn’t want to lose him; she doesn’t even seem to mind that she does a disproportionate amount of work in their condo, only the fact that he really doesn’t understand the inequity and thank her for it. So her reaction to the break-up (which she initiates) is to try and make him change — specifically to show him that his life is in shambles without her, and that he needs her, and will have to change to get her back.
Gary, on the other hand, is in denial. During the big fight, he tells Brooke she sounds crazy and that he works hard and all he wants is to relax at home (and despite the fact that they both work, he doesn’t notice the unfairness of expecting her to prepare meals and clean while he relaxes). He tells himself that he’s happy and eager to be a bachelor; he responds to Brooke’s attempts to make him jealous by returning them in kind (throwing parties and hosting strip poker games knowing she’ll observe them). The one thing he doesn’t do, for most of the movie, is empathize or try and understand why Brooke broke up with him.
For my part, I was frustrated with both characters. I absolutely sympathized with Brooke during the fighting and wanted her to dump him; I did not, however, like her decision to make him jealous, to try force him to change into a suitable boyfriend. Part of that is personal; I object to the very concept of loving a person for what he can be, not what he is, and I think it often leads to mediocre relationships. But in a more general sense, I was angry with her for not behaving like a rational adult, and instead falling into, well, television-and-movie cliches of being manipulative to try and get the man to change, and to try and get him to do what she wanted. What I really wanted was for Brooke to make a decision and stick with it: either dump him, be responsible, and stop with the head games, or to be honest about how she felt.
Another frustration I had was with the direction the movie seemed to be taking: we see Brooke wants Gary back, but wants him to change; we see Gary wants to be with Brooke, and has no idea why things ended. It seemed like the obvious, happy ending was going to be them getting back together — but I wasn’t convinced that Gary would change, and I busily built up my indignation about the fact that Brooke would then be going back to him as he was, because gosh darn it, she loves him. Which is why the last section of the movie really did make me happy: Brooke realizes the mind games aren’t working and asks Gary out on a date. He agrees, and when he stands her up, she realizes it’s over — and she finally explains to him, in so many words, why. (He, in fact, finally seems to get it, noting that she’d never put it like that before.) Then they go off separately for a bit: she sells some artwork, takes a leave from her job to travel, and says goodbye. At the same time, Gary talks about what she said with his friend, who spells out for him that frankly, he really was a jerk about the whole thing, she’s right, and if he cares about her — or about ever having a functional relationship — he needs to change.
Having this insight does seem to change Gary, who immediately cooks a lovely dinner for Brooke and apologizes for everything. And I winced, because reformed though he might be (but who could say for how long? I do believe people change, but not that hit happens overnight), I had really liked that she finally took stock of her situation and decided to change it. So I was pretty thrilled when her answer was, basically, “Thanks but no thanks.” The movie ends with her returning to Chicago a number of months later, and they run into each other. It’s obvious they still have some spark there, though we don’t see if anything comes of it. What we do see is that they’ve both changed and matured, and now they would have the potential to make the situation work.
It doesn’t say much for movies in general that I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that Brooke was not portrayed as a harpy or a bitch, since that shouldn’t be the expectation for women in television and movies — but it’s so often what we get that when the movie was better than I expected, even without being any kind of work of art, I’m excited enough to write a blog entry. As for the movie itself, I doubt I’ll be running out to buy the DVD any time soon…but I’d probably stop on it if I was flipping channels and saw it on. I’d give it a three and a half whatevers out of five. (I should probably come up with a ratings system someday, huh?)
