The Break-Up/Along Came Polly (DVD)

My partner loves the long running (and forever running in repeats) television series Friends. Jennifer Aniston played Rachel, who was one of my partner’s six favourite characters in the show. Several of those actors have moved on to films with variable success with Jennifer seemingly the most prolific. So when my partner spotted this Jennifer double bill in a two disc DVD format for the bargain price of £5, it was immediately purchased. Having not ...
...able to distance herself from the ultra familiar Rachel persona.

BREAK UP

At the start of this DVD, you are given the choice of “His” or “Hers”, implying you can view two different versions. However, there did not appear to be any difference in the subsequent story whichever choice you make to view. It would have been nice to see the film portrayed from a point of view of each the participants but that would be too much ... more

My partner loves the long running (and forever running in repeats) television series Friends. Jennifer Aniston played Rachel, who was one of my partner’s six favourite characters in the show. Several of those actors have moved on to films with variable success with Jennifer seemingly the most prolific. So when my partner spotted this Jennifer double bill in a two disc DVD format for the bargain price of £5, it was immediately purchased. Having not really seen many of her films, I was interested to see if she was able to distance herself from the ultra familiar Rachel persona.

BREAK UP

At the start of this DVD, you are given the choice of “His” or “Hers”, implying you can view two different versions. However, there did not appear to be any difference in the subsequent story whichever choice you make to view. It would have been nice to see the film portrayed from a point of view of each the participants but that would be too much to hope for. Also, it would be rather difficult to achieve through the cinema release schedule.

In the prologue to the film, Gary, played by Vince Vaughn (who is also the writer) engineers a chat up with Brooke, played by Jennifer, at a baseball game. Over the subsequent titles, their happy get together is shown in a montage of photos spanning two years together. Then the film truly starts at the point when it all begins to go horribly wrong. Bam, it happens straightway. He comes home having failed to buy the12 lemons requested and then he does not help her as she prepares for a dinner party they are hosting for both of their families. She holds it together for the meal but then in the arguments that follow, they break up but find that they can’t leave each other as they have the flat together and can’t leave it to the other.

It was good to see a film go against the grain with a reversal of the regular romantic comedy where a couple overcome events or each other to get or stay together. This operates in reverse where small incidents escalate to all out war between the couple. The only type of story this resonates with for me similarly is “The War of the Roses”, which was played so over the top. So this was nice to see in a more understated way.

Unfortunately in the film for me, I kept seeing Jennifer as the Rachel character. Of course there were differences but she doesn’t seem to break away enough from her character, personality or mannerisms. Vince Vaughn plays the wisecracking Gary who I couldn’t really identify or sympathise with. For me, he seemed to be such a slob. I wondered how they got on seemingly so well up to that point, as they were plainly completely unsuited for each other. It seemed quite a flight of fancy that they got together in the first place and though the montage of photos was a clever idea to get to the break up as soon as possible, you didn’t get to see how they interacted positively before the lemon episode. Perhaps then we could have understood how it escalated so quickly. Some would say he was just being a guy but he invested nothing into the relationship and he seemed to get to understand that as the film progressed. However, it didn’t give any clear steps of this progress through the film. It all appeared a bit haphazard. This was similarly done with the tit-for-tat retaliation they carried out on each other as they were left stuck together in the apartment they shared but couldn’t sell. After a while, they lost me amongst all the shenanigans as it lost all proper sense of reality. Also, as I didn’t really care for either character, I didn’t get to invest any support or hope into whether they could sort it out or not.

The supporting cast were quite good, especially the guy playing Brooke’s gay brother but this was more a plot-based film. However, since it was supposed to be about the relationship break up perhaps it would have been better concentrating on the characters a bit more. It is set out as a romantic comedy but there are just not enough laughs running through it. They have been unable to get the tricky balance right between the pathos of the break up and the comedy of their reactions to events.

EXTRAS

· Alternative Ending. Without spoiling the final version, I didn’t think this was as good. It was meant to be amusing but I found it rather silly.
· Deleted scenes. These seemed a bit boring without a commentary that was not available here. I wanted to know why.
· Outtakes. These were weird as there were not fluffed lines or anything like that. It was almost like more deleted scenes with mostly Vince saying lots more lines than required I suppose.
· Extended scenes. Again without any commentary, they didn’t mean anything.
· Commentary. This was with the voices of Jennifer and Vince and was quite good as he comes from a more comedic background and could keep the flow going.

ALONG CAME POLLY

In the opening of this story Reuben (Ben Stiller) gets married to his seemingly dream girl (Debra Messing). Everything looks so happy and perfect. Then, on their honeymoon, his new bride goes on a Scuba outing and goes off with the muscle-bound French guy that runs it. He returns home alone and then after a while he meets an old friend from school, Polly (Jennifer Aniston). Based upon his memories of how she was then, he asks her out only to discover she has changed quite a bit from those days when she was prim and proper.

Even though this is part of a double bill of Jennifer Aniston films, this film is actually Ben Stiller’s film. She obviously features very heavily as the new relationship as stated in the title but she is relating to him rather than the other way around. In a way, this was good for Jennifer, as it seemed to take the pressure off her being the main focus. Consequently, I feel, this is the first film that I have seen with her in that she breaks away from her Rachel persona in Friends. For once, I was not seeing Rachel but Polly and that was good to see. In fact, it is Ben Stiller who always seems to be playing the same character from “Something about Mary” through “Meet the Parents” (same writers as this by the way) to “A Night at the Museum”. He does have a natural, light comic touch but he is a very similar in his actions and mannerisms. Then again, he is pretty funny at what he does so maybe he has no reason to change.

The other characters included his cheating wife played by Debra Messing, better known as Grace from the TV series “Will & Grace” Unlike Jennifer, she hasn’t managed to lose her television character, well certainly not here. Philip Hoffman (in the days before he played Truman Capote) plays Reuben’s best friend. He was a child star in one film and has not moved on since. This was played a little too larger than life but then that could well be said for most (if not all) of the characters so it could be said it fitted right in with the general theme. A similar case in point could be said about Hank Azaria playing Claude in that over-the-top French accent. And then there is the ferret. Oh dear; and a blind one no less, who is looked after by Polly. I didn’t really see the point of it except as a plot device towards the end of the film and a few cheap laughs along the way. It could easily have been done without.

It was quite an enjoyable film initially, if you put aside the preposterous opening set up of what happened on the honeymoon. However, once the connection was made between Reuben and Polly, I found my mind drifting away. I could see that he was on a journey but I somewhere along the line I lost interest. At the same time there was the subplot where, Reuben, being an insurance analyst, was giving the job of assessing for life assurance a mega rich Australian businessman, Leland van Lew, played by Bryan Brown. Leland was into extreme sports so Reuben was given some funny moments with him, which showed further his neurotic character. Alec Baldwin played his boss as a great comic turn and I would have liked to have seen more of this character.

EXTRAS

· Original Opening. This gives an insight into what the director was thinking so is quite interesting. This version starts before the wedding and features someone who doesn’t appear in the final version of the movie at all. Poor guy!
· Rudolfo goes to Hollywood. This is trying to be clever by using the feature on the ferret, whilst really showing the premiere with the stars. Painful
· Deleted scenes. Some are interesting to watch for the director’s commentary to understand what he was thinking.
· Outtakes. Boring! These were merely actors laughing when they got their lines wrong. Oh how I laughed too. Not!
· Making of Polly. This is a standard documentary about the shooting of the movie. I did like the links: “Along came Philip (Hoffman)”; “Along came Debra (Messing)”.
· Commentary. The standard watch the film with the director’s comments. Not for me.
· Trailer. Why do I want to see a trailer of the film I have just seen? Having said that it did have a couple of clips not in the actual film. For instance, in the film Hank Azaria is naked showing his bottom. Here, magically, he is wearing swimming trunks!

These are two reasonable films for Jennifer to show off her burgeoning film talents. If you are a fan of hers like my partner then this a great little deal. Personally, I prefer the “Along Came Polly” film best as it has some interesting characters and more laughs running through it. Essentially this double DVD set is two entirely separate DVDs boxed together with the single connection of Jennifer starring in both. There are no joint pieces overlapping so if you only want one of the films, you could buy the individual editions without any difference to your chosen one. I imagine the producers had the idea that they were the two sides of the same coin. One side being a break up whilst the other side is the getting together. Toss the coin and let fate make your choice. 

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