Sunday, November 19, 2006

The Break-up



I this weekend I just witnessed the longest road ever taken by a man to do the dishes. Normally, these sort of movies have a plot where you can at least sympathize with the man (Harry Met Sally, War of the Roses, etc.) but in this one guy was just a plain idiot. The main characters of this movie are D.I.N.K.s. Dual Income No Kids. Aniston spends all evening cleaning the condo and fixing dinner for their families who come to supper. After dinner, Vince, a 30 something guy grabs a seat on the couch and starts playing grand theft auto. Aniston asks him to help with the dishes, he says no, because he worked all day and needs to de-stress. She say she's worked all day and then cleaned and cooked. At this point the "break-up" begins with a fight about her being too anal and clean and him being too much of a slob and not caring.

At first I assumed this must have been written by women portraying a heroine stuck with a self-absorbed oaf. A modern indictment of the state of men and their immaturity. But then I looked it up and the story is written by Vaughn and some other guys? What!? Can't you at least write yourself a good argument? I WANT A MOVIE WITH SOME DAD-GUM MAN POWER AND THESE YAHOOS CAN'T DELIVER! This guy was clearly the guilty party from the beginning. It drove me nuts the whole movie. DO THE DISHES YOU MORON!!! TAKE 10 MINUTES AND IT WILL BE OVER!! As they say, the lazy man works the hardest. A wise prophet says in a break-up it is usually the man's fault. Painful experience says DO THE DISHES. IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU WILL DO ALL DAY. (Don't ask Julie about how well I walk my talk.)

Towards the end, Vince does some thinking and changing. He cleans up and realizes what this woman means to him. He reaches the point where he is willing to sacrifice (i.e. go to the ballet), because he realizes that its the best way to show your love. But too much too late. Perhaps the writers were tying to show men that you are idiots and need to change, regardless of the outcome.

I didn't care about the ending. I guess some filmmakers feel better about themselves for creating a realistic movie without a happy ending. Often I like that, because life does have hard lessons. But in a case where one small act could have fixed 90 Mins of yelling, I wanted to see something good happen. GENERATE SOME POSITIVE KARMA YOU NEGATIVE CRAZY BITTER PEOPLE!!! Alright. I'll go do the dishes now.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's what you get for watching a chick-flick. To make my wife happy, I'll do the dishes until the cows come home... but chick-flicks are where I draw the line.

Fletch said...

Agreed. Jules - do you see my love in the sacrfices baby? I love you!!!

Anonymous said...

Doing the dishes, especially the first 10 times, is a drag...then you realize..it just needs to be done...so LET'S JUST DO IT!
If you can talk someone into helping you do it the time goes much faster, but never-the-less...just grabbing the yellow plastic scrubby and getting to work gets it over with the fastest.
It is TRULY mind over matter.
Make it like a contest with one's self.
This is also a SURE FIRE way to win friends and influence people...spot the counter or sinkful of dirties...grab out your handy latex gloves and your little scrubby always carried in your car..brief case, purse, and go to work..even amid the protests of the amazed person praying in their hearts for help... YOU have become the SUPERMAN...the SUPERGIRL in their world! Try it! It's so fun! And the job IS DONE!

Anonymous said...

I saw the previews for this, it looked like a pretty cool movie. I'm a fan of Vince Vaughn, I think he plays some really good roles. So I'll probably be checking this one out. Vince Vaughn is nominated for favorite leading man for The Peoples Choice Awards! You guys should vote at http://www.pcavote.com. I work with The People's Choice Community, so I'm giving you guys the heads up!