The other day I took my girlfriend out on a classic Dante Hicks Dinner and a Movie date. We went to a matinee showing of The Break-Up, the new sorta-romantic comedy with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anniston. In it, Gary (Vaughn) and Brooke (Aniston) get into a bad argument that terminates their relationship. The catch? Both refuse to leave the apartment and attempt to split it in half like a bad sit-com (though executed well here). Not a bad film. Good dialogue, funny writing, Vince Vaughn delivers a perfect Vice-Vaughny performance, and there’s a great supporting cast. But I’m not here to give a review of the film.
What I am here to do is to talk about the use of video games in the film. There are a number of PlayStation 2 games played during the course of the movie. First off, we see CJ jacking a car in GTA: San Andreas. Gary plays it a couple of times during the film. There’s also a Fight Night Round 2 scene and some Madden, which is brought in much like the NHL ‘94 scene from Swingers. It’s interesting, at least from a cultural-academic standpoint, to think about the way these are used in the film. They’re not just there to pass the time but instead are integrated into the narrative. It shows that someone on the set (surely Vaughn himself) has a more-than-working knowledge of the games.
San Andreas is the game that really escalates the fight between Gary and Brooke. The in-game moments show CJ behaving as the stereotypical male - aggresive, full of testosterone, and with no emotional regard for the poor “helpless” people living in the hood. Gary is behaving the same way - ignoring the subtle and not-so-subtle clues that Brooke is dropping about how he should behave in their relationship. It can be extrapolated that all clueless males in relationships have a little bit of CJ in them.
Fight Night is used in the scene in which Brooke attempts to win over Gary’s libido by strutting naked through the apartment. The implimentation of the game in the narrative is quite heavy-handed. Gary goes from winning to getting knocked out during the course of the strut as he loses concentration. Diagetically you hear the game’s announcer commenting on the scene as Gary gets wailed on. As Brooke finishes strutting through and Gary’s “attention” has been caught, the announcer reflects Brooke’s knock-out in his commentary - Gary hits the mat.
Later on, in another attempt to make Gary jealous, Brooke brings home a guy named Matt. She pulls the classic female move by retreating into her bedroom for a minute to “keep him waiting,” but Matt becomes sidetracked by the game of Madden Gary is playing. The scene begins with Gary playing against what sounds like a 12-year old kid. He trash talks the kid, to which the kid defends that he is only a child. Gary makes a good point, though, which isn’t often said enough. Kids should be better because they have more time to sit at home and play games since they don’t have jobs and families to take care of. Touche, Gary!
Gary ropes Matt into the game - a reflection on the male comeradery of both football and games. (Not to say that this can’t happen for women… but you know.) I was a little disappointed with the reactions given by Vaugn and Matt as they played through the game, though perhaps it was a meditation on the restraint that accompanies mastery. I don’t know, I’m not a doctor. But what I do know is that from a gamer’s standpoint I enjoyed the incorporation of actual true-to-life gameplay into The Break-Up.
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