Customer Reviews

The Break Up

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Sometimes, I think, when a reviewer starts the ball rolling with a bad review, others tend to follow suit. Perhaps this is the case with Break Up. When I first and secondly (at a later time) saw the film, I was intrigued by the simplicity of it. While no one made an Oscar level performance, the actors played their roles with skill. Bridget Fonda made a believeable victim-turned-agressor, her lip reading skils, particularly in the dark, were a serious stretch. There is some confusion (still) about whether there were two assaults or just a continuation of one only. Bochner portrayed the scummy husband with aplomb. The supporting roles, though far less significant, were,nonetheless, satisfactory. The bank scene where Bridget finds her trashy husband relieved her of her savings, should serve to educate couples to protect their financial interests from a partner who is not trustworthy. The end seemed to have a somewhat interesting twist, and served to vindicate the betrayed wife. I purchased this in VHS format a couple years ago and routinely watch it when I feel that a somber, almost film noire movie seems to suit my mood at respective times. I DO, yes DO, recommend this film as sound entertainment, keeping in mind the diminuative filming budget. The soundtrack is errie and lends itself to the dark mood of Break Up. It just got under my skin and has become one of my favorite twenty-five films. Most of the DVDs and VHS movies I purchase or rent seem to satisfy me with only one viewing; even some of the big budget films. Not this one. Enjoy.

Let's get something out of the way first. Is this a really good movie? Well, uh, no. It's a potboiler with plenty of cliches and lots of implausible plot turns. But then, I didn't think I was getting Hitchcock when I rented it. This is a B movie, and like cheap wine and seedy beach motels, B movies have an honest job to perform. The job of a B movie, far as I'm concerned, is to hold my interest and keep me entertained without making me groan or roll my eyes too often. That's what I needed when I watched this (long day at work) and that's what I got. And I've been much more bored by (and put off by the pretensions of) movies with much higher ratings.

As for Bridget Fonda's performance, seems to me there's another way to read it. Abuse makes some people numb. Bridget Fonda's Jimmy seemed to me to be a fairly plausible depiction of a certain kind of abuse victim. Seemed to me that there were a few nice touches -- the scene in the kitchen after she's missed picking Frank up; the scene in the motel room just before the end.

No one's likely to nominate this film for any awards. But as far as I'm concerned, I got my $... worth. That doesn't always happen went I rent a movie.

For those of you who saw last year's "Lake Placid" & thought Bridget Fonda can't act her way out of a paper bag let me reccomend "BREAK UP"! I believe it's her best performance to date!

She is totally believable as "Jimmy Dade", a woman whose marriage has fallen apart to the extreme! You can't help but be glued to your seat as she is put through a nightmare and a half as she battles the odds to survive .......the BREAK UP!

The movie has everything: Drama! Suspense! Humor! Great supporting Cast: Keifer Sutherland, Steven Weber, Penelope Ann Miller, Tippi Hedren(!), & Hart Bochner as "Frank Dade", the husband!

This was not too bad a movie, but it's definitely lacking in areas. This abusive man is one step above the normal abusive man portrayed on screen, or radio. He abuses his wife, and causes her to fall off the steps. That is because she confronted him about a woman she was having an affair with, and this was after he accussed her of sleeping around. Then comes where it goes one step beyond the norm on movie, and tv. He finds out that he hurt her to the point of near death, so he goes the next step further by staging his own death, and making it look like his wife did the dirty deed. Then goes off with his new fling, and abuses her too while his wife tries to find out what happened to her husband to clear her name, and then as the movie goes along finds out more about what he did. I found this movie to be lacking in the sense that the only strong character was the abused wife.the rest just didn't seem to gel too well here. The abusive husband to make him even more evil is if he came while beating his wife, and then beat her some more for making him do so as he would find it a moral obligation to beat the woman he loves. They came close, but still a ways off.

This movie popped up on FX today and I found it to be one of the worst excuses for gratuitous violence and one of the most poorly written and acted portrayals of a "woman as victim" genre films that I've seen in a long time.

Pacing: For a "thriller", this film moves extremely slow. The actors act as if they're half asleep or drugged most of the time. Perhaps they were just not thrilled to be part of this turkey. With huge expanses of zero action, movement or dialogue, the film is a good one to help you drift away in slumber.

Music: The mixture of strings and electric guitar combine to make a druggy, stretched-out sound track that detracts from and confuses the plot. In places it sounds like two different songs were put on top of each other. Seriously, this soundtrack is just plain bad.

Acting: Apart from a few scenes where Fonda looks convincing as an abused wife/victim during questioning, anyone could have acted the main part since it mostly consists of running, looking desperate and crying. Sutherland phones in his part and the rest are forgettable.

Plot: As much as I like suspending disbelief for the sake of a movie, this one pushed me too far. Completely implausible and too many odd inconsistencies make for a truly "convenient" script. It's like a college film project gone wrong.

Cinematography: So dark as to disappear in many sections. Static camera where there COULD have been more hand-held shots to help push the action further. The camera must have been super glued to the dolly. Basic Film 101 stuff that anyone could have shot with their home video camera.

Needless to say, I would not recommend this film unless it was the only thing left to watch on TV on a rainy morning, which was the only reason I saw it.

This movie first attracted me because it has two of my favorite actresses, Bridgett Fonda and Penelope Ann Miller, and one of my favorite actors, Keifer Sutherland.
It's an intersting story with a lots of drama, plot twists and surprises.
They are all faithful to the story.
I caught just a part of it on cable once, accidentally. That was what made me want to buy the DVD.
Finding out that Penelope Ann Miller had a sexy role in the movie was the clincher.
Glad I bought it.
I think that Miller and Fonda are two of the most attractive and underrated actresses of recent times.

The Break Up, brings to the screen the story of an abused woman trying to find out the truth about the deaths of her husband and sister, while being considered by the police to be the prime suspect in their deaths.
Overall, the acting is pretty good (both Bridget Fonda and Kiefer Sutherland do a decent job), but it's Hart Bochner that really steals the show for me.
As for the plot, it is interesting, but full of flaws. To mention a few: the crazy blind mother was just too much! The "bad" cop was not only "bad," but completely useless as well (too useless). The "coincidences" that occur are beyond any sense of realism. The list goes on...
In a nutshell, it's probably not a movie you would want to add to your collection, but it might provide for an evening's entertainment, and that's about it.
No masterpiece here... 2 ½ Stars

I feel sorry for anyone renting much less buying this movie. Don't waste your time and money with all the great (or even just somewhat good!) movies out there. I saw it for free on late night TV and regret investing the time.

Everything about this movie is bad (just read other reviews here), but here's an example that was so irritating:
They had 'the guy' in jail. Kiefer ordered dental comparisons to see if it matched the man they were looking for. Well, the bad guy had chipped a tooth and pulled a tooth out by himself to help aid in changing his identity. The whole time he was doing so and wreathing in pain, I wanted to shout, "You dumb***! Messing up a couple teeth is not going to mean they can't match your dental records!!!" Oh, but low and behold, when the results came in, the cop said, "Well, they don't match. This guy has a chipped tooth and a missing tooth." WHAT!!! So ALL the other teeth match, the bite matches, everything else, but this means it just cannot be the guy? Wow, to think they are able to do partial fingerprints in real life. In this movie, I bet if they got a thumbprint only, they'd say, "Well, the thumbprint matches, but since we didn't see any other fingerprints, this cannot be the guy because the guy we're looking for has all of his fingers.

Now, most movies have stuff where you need to just go with it and suspend belief, but this was just on top of it being a very bad movie.

Anyway, I am sure most actors feel embarrassment and shame over doing bad movies, but they need to get paid too.

Now go rent 'One False Move' or '2 Days in the Valley' if you want to see a decent little known movie of the same genre.

this is about Bridget Fonda..she loses her memory because of her abusive husband..Kiefer is the cop trying to protect her..not a bad movie.. I liked it because of the leads..though can you say that Kiefer was mostly silent in this one...and the guy whos the wife beater should burn in eternal hell..first saw this on Fox because they always..mostly air movies on the weekends and this was one of them.

I can't believe it. Sutherland, FOnda and Ann-Miller, altough not big stars, are, without any doubt, very respectable actors to make such a lousy picture. Maybe the director is to blame, for having extracted such sleepy performances from the actors. Ann-Miller's character is totally empty, no purpose at all. Fonda is totally unconvincent as the deaf beaten woman. Kiefer Sutherland seems to be only waiting for his paycheck and his partner cop (don't know his name), who acts as the "bad cop", is ludicrous.