It’s funny that this movie was set in the 90′s because halfway through the film I thought, “They used to make these kind of movies in the 90′s all the time and they would start Mary Stuart Masterson and/or Christian Slater.”

There wasn’t anything special about this movie.  It ends the way you think it will.  Actually, there was a five-minute or so stretch that were interesting – [START SPOILER] when Jamie (Jake Gyllenhall) tries to do whatever he can to find the best treatment for Maggie’s (Anne Hathaway, she was actually very good) disease tearing apart the relationship [END SPOILER]  – but then it goes right back into being a somewhat formulaic romantic dramedy.  One of my biggest pet peeves in romantic movies is when the couple breaks up over something serious but then get back together without ever really resolving the actual issue that broke them up.  I know this happens all the time in real life but, in the movies, when they get back together, that’s when the lead single from the soundtrack plays, the credits roll and we’re to believe they lived happily ever after.

Maybe I’m the only one who wants to see a movie when whatever kept the hero couple apart is actually dealt better than with something more than “Because I love you.”

I guess that’s why I liked The Break-Up (and a lot of people I know didn’t).