The_Break_Up_-_Film

Pouya Rostampour Richard Feistman HDFS 1610 December 11, 2009 The Loss of Empty Love There needs to be a combination of love and commitment to form any healthy relationship. Love is one of the most difficult concepts to define in a relationship mainly because each individual perceives it differently. In the romantic comedy “The Break Up”, which stars Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston, the two main characters struggle to maintain their relationship due to many reasons which also includes their different definitions of what love should be and their different needs from the relationship. Vaughn known as Gary and Aniston known as Brooke are presented as an odd couple living with one another in a condo they remodeled together. The scenes of the film take place in Chicago. Gary is a tour bus operator who partly owns the company with his brothers Lupus and Dennis. In contrast, Brooke works at an art gallery, and comes from an upper class family. Gary and Brooke first meet at a Cubs game, where he convincingly sweet talks her away from her date to ask her on a date. After two years together, Gary and Brooke's relationship seems to have taken a comical wrong turn on the way to happily ever after. Now the film begins and the lines have been drawn to split the two, and their honest feelings for each other are coming out. There is absolutely no chemistry shown between Gary and Brooke through out {text:soft-page-break} any scenes of this film. The relationship of Gary and Brook is well presented without any passion or intimacy. In fact, the only thing that seems to be keeping them together through out the film is their commitment to the condo that they decorated and remodeled together. Through out the early scenes of “The Break Up”, Gary and Brooke tend to continuously argue about many minor things around. The main issue rising in between the couple comes clearly from lack of communication. Gary's character plays the role of the prototypical male in relationship which indicates him to come home from work, grab a beer, and watch his highlights. On the other hand, Brooke is the woman, and she believes in coming home from work every day, and do house work. This is where the conflicts of their relationship comes into play. Brooke is no longer happy with either roles in the relationship and wants Gary to take a more active role in the day to day chores of their relationship. There is no sign of constructive or functional strategies shown in their relationship. A great example of this is when Brooke asks Gary for help in the kitchen to prepare the dinner for the guests they will be having that night. In this situation Gary struggles with being selfish, an aspect of his personality which he projects on others in his life throughout the movie, and refuses to help Brooke in the kitchen. There is no sign of active listening shown by Gary in this scene. This projects on his relationship with Brooke. The main question is that if Gary and Brooke's cohabitation can possibly lead to marriage in the near future of their relationship. As discussed previously {text:soft-page-break} in the course, a very true fact regarding cohabitation in a relationship is that most situations only last up to one year. The characteristics of Gary and Brooke and their financial background is presented very differently in this film. This is indicated as a very common fact among most cohabitants which usually falls in to a split among the participants of most of the relationships. Relationship participants who choose to cohabit are already different, less conventional, and maybe less committed to relationship stability. During the period of Gary and Brooke cohabiting, Brooke is in general doing twice as much housework as Gary. Gary's tasks are more flexible in terms of when they can be done. Brooke seems to take care of the management of the tasks in the house. As previously discussed in the course, women do more, but the gap between men and women has narrowed since the past. This comes along with arguments which causes conflicts between the couple, and it causes a split. This is presented well in the relationship of Gary and Brooke. The relationship tone of Gary and Brooke has changed by now in this romantic comedy. Less positivity and more negativity is shown along their relationship. Time spent with one another has also changed within their relationship. This means that incidental activities increase and couple-centered time declines. There is a great footage of Escalation presented in this film as well. Negative comment is reciprocated and small issue grows into larger conflict between Gary and Brooke during their conversations. Logically, three of the main types of love is not in process within the relationship of Gary and Brooke which {text:soft-page-break} are known as Infatuation, Consummate and Companionate. There is no sense of passion or intimacy felt among their relationship throughout the scenes of this film. The type of love shown in the relationship of Gary and Brooke is well described as “Empty”. The only element left from their relationship is commitment which keeps them together in the condo owned by both. The commitment left between Gary and Brooke soon ends due to the condo being sold. In conclusion, this romantic comedy by Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston as the main two characters of the film finishes in an unsatisfied ending for the viewers. During the two years of the relationship presented in this film, consummate love with full of passion, intimacy and commitment was unfortunately not clear to vision. Intense physical attraction and arousal, Connectedness and emotional warmth or intent to maintain and stay in the relationship never took a step toward a healthy relationship and a passionate love in “The Break Up”. {text:list-header} {text:bookmark}