Breaking Upwards

I loved this film. I'm not a big "indie" buff but I found myself pleasantly surprised.

The story line was touching. At times you wanted to hate Zoe, making the movie all the more enjoyable. Characters with flaws, even flaws that annoy the hell out of the audience, are needed sometimes. I felt like these were real people, largely due to the script and the acting. (both of which were great.) This was a story of love: confused, strange love. But I highly enjoyed it regardless.

Daryl Wein has an immense amount of talent and knows how to beautifully tell a story.

New York couple Zoe (Zoe Lister-Jones) and Daryl (Daryl Wein) are starting to drift apart. They decide to be proactive and plan for their breakup. They plan for days off for their relationship. His parents Joanie (Julie White) and Alan (Peter Friedman) don't understand. Helaine (Andrea Martin) is her weird mom. Zoe sees another actor from her work as they struggle to navigate their new relationship path.

I'm a big fan of Zoe Lister-Jones. She's funny and has great vulnerability. This is a reverse romance. It's not quite as fun. There are funny bits. There are moments of good chemistry but it's hard to stay with them. It's a nice attempt but it doesn't quite work.

My wife and I see a lot of independent movies and in our opinion, this is one of the worst of the year. We ended up walking out about two-thirds of the way through. In Breaking Upwards Daryl and Zoe are a twenty-something New York couple who have been together for four years. One day she decides that even though she still loves Daryl, all the excitement has gone out their relationship (sex is so boring). Though a little puzzled by Zoe's coolness, Daryl agrees to explore different options.

Our main problem was that we didn't like Zoe. She is one of those girls who are pretty poison. She's attractive enough to bewitch the guys but too neurotic, self-centered, and lacking in self-esteem to sustain a long-term relationship. Daryl is a nice enough guy and he could do better. We were rooting for him to break up with Zoe and find a more normal girl.

Zoe Lister Jones is not going to win any acting awards for this movie. And the script only makes things worse. Much of it is boring improvisation (or so it seems). Some scenes, particularly the karaoke scene, are painful to watch. Another frustration is the "idiot plot": Daryl and Zoe do so many things to sabotage their romance. Any idiot in the audience would know better. Their main plan is to take certain days of the week off from the relationship. Their parents ask, "What does that mean? We don't understand." Neither do we.

This movie was sad. They had grown so comfortable, and they loved each other... but they fell out of love? The movie Celeste and Jesse Forever copied this movie.

Ah, kids.

My primary reaction watching "Breaking Upwards" was that I'm....old. OK, so I'm only 35, but this movie made 23 feel like a looong time ago. It follows the travails of two younguns struggling with a waning relationship while at the same time scared to cut loose altogether. They instead try to go at relationship resuscitation in an ordered, spreadsheet fashion, scheduling days apart and establishing ground rules. By the time the film is over, you just want to say "break up already, it's not that bad....trust me, you'll find someone else."

I have a toddler and my wife is pregnant with our second child. I will have 23 year old kids someday, and I know from experience that things only seem to not be a big deal once you're old enough to look back at them -- everything seems important while you're in the middle of it. Therefore, out of respect to the filmmakers, and my own children, I don't want to dismiss the emotions in this movie as being unimportant just because it's kids feeling them. But my wife and I spent more time being amused by the two lovers in this movie than feeling empathy for them.

A handful of fairly well-known stage actors appear in supporting roles, like Pablo Schreiber (brother of Liev), Peter Friedman, Andrea Martin and Julie White, who plays one of the most awful, overbearing Jewish mothers ever committed to film.

This movie is likable but immature.

Grade: B