The Break-Up
Universal Pictures | Release Date: June 2, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
23
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
A movie that's smarter than its trailer - in fact, totally different in tone and content? That's news, and it's why The Break-Up is a pleasant surprise to the open-minded. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
It's easier to accept a breakup when it's clear that the two parties are mismatched, but a better, braver film would reveal what caused the initial attraction. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Newly minted celebrity couple Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston don't have many opportunities to demonstrate their romantic chemistry in Peyton Reed's funny, heart-wrenching The Break-Up, but they still give what may be the best performances of their careers. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
Is The Break-Up worth your time? Let's put it this way: Whenever Vaughn is onscreen, it is. When he's not, it ain't. The movie's a comedy, but it's also about a breakup, so it gets a bit maudlin toward the end. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
It's an ambitious idea that monkeys with your expectations: make a whole movie about the ugly, hurt-feelings part of the relationship that's usually disposed of in a romantic-comedy musical montage. Unfortunately, like a bad boyfriend, The Break-Up has a problem with consistency. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Vaughn and Favreau are so money, just like they were in "Swingers." Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneJessica Reaves
It's Aniston's return to the emotional authenticity that surfaced too briefly in "Friends With Money" and made "The Good Girl" such a revelation. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Listening to people bicker for almost two hours wears thin, especially when the comedy is never quite so funny as you had hoped it would be. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
It's full of pain and quirky characters standing at oblique angles to one another, and while it doesn't add up it held me throughout. Read full review
60
EmpireTony Horkins
The Break-Up doesn't turn the rom-com on its head, but with its focus on the darker side of love manages to gently tip it on its side. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Audiences expecting a good time will instead be rewarded with wildly unsympathetic lead characters and uncomfortably long stretches without a laugh in sight. Read full review
50
VarietyBrian Lowry
Sporadic rays of sunshine emanate from the broad and gifted supporting cast, but the core story is almost relentlessly unpleasant, like sitting through a dinner party where the host couple does nothing but bicker. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
A routine, stereotype-stuffed sitcom with pretensions. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The best bits are incidental: Vaughn's chats with Jon Favreau as his bartender buddy, which are delightful interludes of jostling ego, and Judy Davis, looking like Anna Wintour redesigned by Tim Burton as an undead marionette, laying down the law as Aniston's boss. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The Break-Up is like Danny DeVito's "The War of the Roses," but without the wit, the acid, and the blacker-than-black humor. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
Everybody’s sleepwalking here. Vincent D'Onofrio is fantastic with Vaughn in a small part as his brother, but it's as if he’s running in during a break from "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." Read full review
50
PremiereMarie Iida
Peyton Reed's The Break-Up proves there is nothing particularly funny or charming about two people splitting up, even if the couple is played by Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The script (by Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender) strains hard after a few easy jokes, and the whole movie feels dull and trivial. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
I'd be happy to see it listed in an in-flight magazine, but "Annie Hall" it's not. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The Break-Up is not comical or romantic, and it's certainly not a date movie. Sitting through it is almost as painful as going through the demise of a relationship. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
This one has some originality, even though it unfolds like Ingmar Bergman's divorce melodrama "Scenes From a Marriage" - without the marriage. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Done in by its tone. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Since the scenes where they're together are so much less convincing than the ones where they fall apart, watching the movie is like being on a double-date from hell. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Imagine watching Bergman's "Scenes From a Marriage," except without good scenes, without a marriage (legal or spiritual) and without people worthy of anybody's attention, even each other's. Now imagine something even worse. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Although possessed of a laudable desire not to be yet another run-of-the-mill, wacky-impediment, I'm-nobody-and-you're-the-Prez's-daughter romance comedy, damned if the picture can figure out how to be an anti-romance comedy. Read full review
50
SlateMichael Agger
With this genial bunch, and the occasional good line, there's no reason not to see The Break-Up, but there's also no reason, assuming the date is going well, not to skip it and order dessert. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The filmmakers have wildly miscalculated the chemistry these real-life lovers generate on film. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyJoe Donnelly
Sadly, The Break-Up is simply an exercise in confusion. To call it erratic would be to imply there was a course it went off, but the film's intentions are impossible to fathom. Read full review
40
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Nobody likes a fixed fight, except the backroom boys making the deal. Which is why The Break-Up may have its share of laughs, but isn't much fun. Read full review
40
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
While The Break-Up fancies itself the heir apparent to other vindictive failed relationship movies like "Modern Romance" and "War of the Roses," its lead actors lack the comparable appeal to hold our interest Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The Break-Up doesn't know whether it wants to be a facile, enjoyable date movie or an unnerving examination of the dark, pockmarked underbelly of everything we expect out of romantic relationships, and it settles for a deeply unsatisfying nowheresville. Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
There are precious few laughs in this poorly written and directed "unromantic comedy" - the sort of dire date movie you'd take somebody to if you wanted it to be a LAST date. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The biggest unresolved question here is why we're paying $9.50, plus popcorn, for something we can presumably get at home for free. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
A lot of The Break-Up doesn't work. Actually, apart from some funny moments between old Swingers sparring partners Favreau and Vaughn, and a nice scene with Jason Bateman as the couple's realtor, virtually none of it works. Read full review
33
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
If, as the ads would lead you to believe, you go to see The Break-Up expecting a romantic comedy, you will be severely disappointed. If you go to it expecting a good movie, you will also be severely disappointed. Read full review
30
Village VoiceCarla Blumenkranz
Faced with a long and miserable road on which they make each other sorry or crazy, both Brooke (Aniston) and Gary (Vaughn) dig in hard on the least appealing parts of their stock characters. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
It's not a good sign when a movie is called The Break-Up and you can't wait for the couple to split so they'll get some relief from one another, and give the audience some relief from them.
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