he Break-Up is being touted as an “unconventional romantic comedy,” and, to a certain degree, it is. Vince Vaughn - starring and assisting in devising the screenplay – has maintained that he wanted to make an anti-romantic comedy. And in the process, he’s released an anti-funny and anti-charming movie along the way.

The oddly plump Vaughn plays Gary Grobowski; he’s in a soon-to-end relationship with Brooke Meyers, played by Jennifer Aniston in a girl-next-door role, with a classy job at an art gallery. An early photo montage shows us how Gary and Brooke meet - at Wrigley Field watching a Cubs game, where he chases her even though she's with another man. As we watch the trajectory of their happier times, the movie, directed by Peyton Reed, gets right to the tipping point when that happy honeymoon is finished.

Aniston’s Brooke arranges their social lives, cooks meals, re-decorates their co-owned condo and does the laundry; he does … well, not that much. She sees him as a selfish slob, and he considers her a controlling nag… and both are accurate, indeed. So, they fight in public, fight in private, fight about the dishes and set the stage to break up.

But this is a comedy flick, and so there's a twist to this nastiness: Brooke doesn't even want to break up. She's just hoping that the threat of losing her will snap Gary out of his beer-guzzling demi-coma. Twist number 2: Who gets the condo? Since breaking up is progressing, neither Brooke nor Gary wants to give up the condo they share, and are stuck together because neither can afford the mortgage on their own. Gary decides he'll hang out in the living room as his territory, and Brooke starts a campaign to make him jealous.