Parents' Guide to

The Break-Up

By Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Mean-spirited comedy pushes edge for teens.

Movie PG-13 2006 106 minutes
The Break-Up Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 14+

Based on 4 parent reviews

age 14+

Film Literature A1 Emme Chadwick

“The Break up” is a film that incorporates a real life situation into a film that is relatable and well rounded. This film produces a new look at relationships and the hardships that are bound to come between two people. The director interestingly takes a new, and innovative approach on this film by not making it a happy ending story, but in fact making it a sad ending where neither person in the couple regains what they truly want--each other. The director continuously reinforces the idea that couples aren’t always happy and go through trials just like everyone else. By doing this, it makes the film a more relatable thing to watch for an older audience. Although this film is overall an enjoyable film to watch, I would not consider it classic or a very popular film. Though in it’s time it may have been very popular amongst adults and teenagers, it’s overall value has decreased with time. Many think this is due to the fact that the film is too generic with no real ‘closure’ at the end of the film. Others speculate that it’s just another relationship movie. I believe this film decreased in popularity due to both of these reasons. It attracts many of the older audience to this film, but once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it and there's not much more to gain. Overall, I believe this film holds many morals and messages within it. All relationships have problems at one point or another and I believe this film explores those ideas fairly well. It teaches us that if you love someone, you sacrifice what you want to make the other person happy. It’s also equally important that both partners are emotionally satisfied in the relationship in order for it to work out in the end for both parties. The director installations that in his film by getting a deeper look of the phases couples go through after a break up, which made the film stronger in the long run. The director in this film did a good job of showing the internal conflict of both the people in the relationship and how that affected the wellbeing of the external conflict. By showing both sides of this relationship and how both people thought out their next move, it brought to light many of the questions people have in their own relationship. Brooke’s internal conflict was feeling unappreciated in the relationship, and Gary’s internal conflict was being confused and wanting freedom. Both of these problems contributed to the bridged external conflict, the break up and the aftermath it left on their friends and family. The director brought to light these two characters equally into the plot, which strengthened the audience’s connection to both characters. This film explores relationships and the struggles one goes through very well. I would recommend this movie and give it a 7 on the wow scale.
age 14+

Terrible ending.

I watched this with my 13 year old daughter and there were some parts that were a bit risky, but it was mainly swearwords and she knows never to repeat these. However, the ending was one of the worst I've ever seen - don't watch if you like happy or satisfying endings. The rest of the film was OK.

This title has:

Too much swearing

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4):
Kids say (5):

Teens love Vince Vaughn from Wedding Crashers, but that movie was rated R; this one is close without being nearly as funny. Careening from too-cute to mean-spirited, THE BREAK-UP recycles romantic comedy clichés without energy or inspiration.

While Gary reels off Vaughn's patented patter -- fast, aggressive, arrogant as a means to "hide" insecurity -- Brooke frequently looks sad and defeated. The couple seems so obviously mismatched that you can't help but wonder what they liked about each other to begin with. And the onslaught of insults and bad behaviors is so intense, that by the time it's over, you're just hoping it really is over.

Movie Details

Inclusion information powered by

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate