The Break-Up

Contrary to expectations, The Break-Up is an anti-romantic comedy, which wades through the emotional wreckage wrought by a young couple, whose relationship seems destined for the scrap-heap.

Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, who reportedly started dating while making Peyton Reed's film, are hugely gifted comic actors.

Unfortunately, Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender's misfiring screenplay furnishes them with scant opportunity for merriment.

The writers are more concerned with the pain and bitterness of the ex-lovers and their ham-fisted attempts to make each other jealous.

The one saving grace is that the film doesn't fob us off with some happy-ever-after resolution to all of the misery.

Art dealer Brooke Meyers (Aniston) has been dating her boyfriend Gary Grobowski (Vaughn), a Chicago double-decker bus tour guide, for two years.

The honeymoon period is well and truly over and the foibles which use to endear Brooke and Gary to each other are starting to drive them to distraction.

Brooke continually pours out her heart to best friend Addie (Adams), the epitome of married domestic bliss, while Gary seeks guidance from his best buddy Johnny O (Favreau), who runs the local bar.

After months of sniping and niggling rows, which build to a crescendo at a dinner party for the two families, Brooke finally terminates the relationship.

Neither Brooke nor Gary wants to move out of the condominium they share. Indeed, their friends suggest they should both stay put.

Instead, both parties engage in systematic mental warfare to force their ex out on to the streets.

As the battle of attrition intensifies, Brooke and Gary begin to question whether a relationship filled with so much passion might be worth fighting for.

As battles of the sexes go, The Break-Up is a decidedly one-sided affair.

The heroine is a sensitive, caring domestic goddess who cooks, cleans and nurtures, compensating for her man's failings to ensure a happy home.

Her beau, in stark contrast, is a selfish, brusque, uncaring oaf who would rather play video games while his partner slaves away in the kitchen.

We're so stunned by the obvious incompatibility of the two characters - what on Earth attracted them to each other? - we barely give a second thought to the idea they might get back together.

The tabloid rumour mongering which engulfed the making of The Break-Up (Aniston's divorce from husband Brad Pitt and her subsequent romance with Vaughn) lends curiosity value to the film, if only to see whether the leading couple share any screen chemistry (they don't).

However, "art imitates life" voyeurism can only keep the box office tills ringing for so long.