The reviews lean negative on The Break-Up, with most critics finding too few laughs to make its sour relationship drama work. Praise centres on individual performances: some reviews appreciate Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn’s rawness, Vaughn’s comic agility, and supporting players who provide occasional relief, particularly Jon Favreau. There is some appreciation for its departure from romantic-comedy convention, though little agreement that the darker approach succeeds.
Reservations cluster around the script’s awkward shifts between comedy and drama, the couple’s poor chemistry and their frustrating inability to communicate. The spread is wide: some critics find it watchable or intermittently funny, while the harshest see an unpleasant relationship offering little insight or effective comedy. The New Yorker supplies the clearest dissent, praising the staging of mutual incomprehension and finding sharp social observation in the very romantic discord that others regard as a failing.