Breaking up's hard to do

Blokey Pole Gary (Vince Vaughn) and sensitive Wasp Brooke (Jennifer Aniston) are splitting up. He has no self-knowledge; she can't decide whether that's a problem.

Along the way they row, sulk, talk to their cartoonish friends and play mind-games. She hops into outfits that show off her trim bod; he makes no attempt to disguise his ballooning jowels.

It's a rom-com that every now and again is funny but never with any sense of momentum. Just as often, the jokes misfire. Sometimes there are no jokes at all, just sadness.

By the end, you realise you've been watching two wildly different movies squeezed into one, and since Vaughn produced The Break-Up, worked on the script, and chose the director (the man responsible for the equally confused Down With Love), I think he's the one we should blame.

Vaughn and Aniston both have great, wounded eyes and, in The Break-Up's best moments, they connect beautifully. In a rom-com with any soul, they'd make quite a pair.

The Break-Up
Cert: 12A