The Break-up
January 2007 Reviewed by: Anthony Di Marco Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Beyond its improved picture quality and space for extra features, the DVD format has allowed viewers to see what happens behind the camera. Witnessing filmmakers at work allows the audience to learn what’s involved in filmmaking and, in the case of The Break-up, how editing decisions turned a would-be comedy into an unfunny film about a mean-spirited, disintegrating relationship.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the acting. Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston, along with supporting work from Vincent D’Onofrio, Jason Bateman and Judy Davis, deliver interesting performances. If only interesting translated to likable. The interactions between the main characters, Gary Grobowski and Brooke Meyers, deliver more moments of discomfort than comedy. It also doesn’t help that Gary is depicted as a chauvinistic, self-centered ass and Brooke, a manipulative, whiny bitch.

Here’s where the magic of the DVD’s extras comes in. The deleted-scenes feature reveals how different the film could have been if the filmmakers had left in certain scenes. Early in the film, for example, after Brooke and Gary begin their painful separation, Brooke’s overbearing mother lets a cat out of the bag. She broadcasts Brooke’s man problems to Brooke’s brother Richard. A confident a cappella crooner, Richard delivers sympathy in song over his cell to Brooke, while demonstrating a convincing familiarity with Gene Kelly dance steps down a Chicago sidewalk. Actor John Michael Higgins, made famous by Christopher Guest comedy classics like Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, delivers the scene with an off-the-wall energy. Sinfully, it is left on the cutting-room floor. There are other funny bits, such as Gary’s picking up books on cooking and relationships or his venting on a bus full of tourists. They could have turned what is a dire, dreary, and depressing story into one that pokes comic fun at the overly complicated elements of relationships.

Some amusing parts have been left in the film. I especially liked an almost unrecognizable Vincent D’Onofrio as Gary’s overworked brother Dennis and Cole Hauser as his crude, womanizing brother Lupus. Vince Vaughn does have moments when he channels the comic brilliance he demonstrated in Dodge Ball and The Wedding Crashers. Gary’s describing an altercation between himself and Richard a.k.a. the "dancing, singing sprite" is hilarious. Sadly, these are only moments.

Technically, the DVD is very good. Slightly overexposed outside scenes at Chicago’s Wrigley Field offer sun-drenched color, while interiors are cozy and sharp. Surround sound does a good job of opening up the ambience of venues, whether it’s the bar where Gary and his opinionated friend Johnny O (an under-utilized John Favreau) hang out or the I-can’t-believe-they-can-afford- the-rent apartment of the feuding couple. Dialogue is also well represented. It’s a shame that the filmmakers didn’t give me a reason to care about what this talented cast was saying.

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