10 Things We Should Do Before We Break Up

The gods of alphabetical Sky movie watching decided that "10 Things We Should Do Before We Break Up" should be the next film I watch. A romantic comedy(-ish) starring Christina Ricci and Hamish Linklater.

Abigail (Christina Ricci) meets Benjamin (Hamish Linklater) on a blind date and despite both their acknowledgements that their relationship wouldn't work, a fact they detail at length on their first date, they spend the night together and Abigail becomes pregnant. Abigail already has two children from her first marriage and is unwilling to allow the childish and petulant Benjamin any further into her life, but eventually she relents and tries to manage their unusual backwards relationship.

So, I put comedy in the opening paragraph, but I'm not sure that's really right. There are romantic elements, and there's the capacity for a few of the scenes to be charming or humorous, but it's not really a comedy. It might have been, if for a small tonal shift in the Benjamin character, but really he's just too awful to be considered a comedic character. Self-sabotaging his relationship as he bumbles through a failed life, acting as if calling himself on his behaviour is in any way comparable to dealing with it. Ricci's performance alongside him is fine, if occasionally a little unlikely that she'd tolerate some of the earlier behaviour prior to it coming to a head. Overall, it's a reasonable, if slightly dull indie drama.

But there also are several bizarre scenes with Abigail's best friend that feel like coded lectures on anti-abortion themes, so much so I wondered if this was a Christian movie at one point during them.

Undecided over this film. It's a great story line except the ending is very abrupt. When the end titles were rolling I was left asking was that it. In one way I can say it's not your typical film where everything has a happy ever after ending but it just left me wanting to know more.

I did have to force myself to watch the first 10 minutes and after that I couldn't turn it off.

This movie has lots of low points. It's story isn't great, the acting ranges from fine to terrible and it was obvious shot on a show string budget but it's biggest issue is the characters.

I can say I didn't like one character in this movie. The lead woman is such a push over, her best friend seems like a nightmare person, the children are awful but the worst is the lead man.

Jesus Christ this character is a disaster. He is so unlikable and I guess that's the point but then it frustrates you because the other lead forgives him for unforgivable things. He constantly blows hot and cold for no reason. He can literally say something and then the next sentence is a complete 180 of what he just said. He acts like a 18 year old when he is pushing 50. Like parts of his character could make him interesting if it was clearer how the movie felt about him. Because I felt that from the leads second meeting I would have ran for the hills.

This movie is only 1 hour and 10 minutes long which is super short and I normally like short films but I feel like an extra couple of minutes could have been used to flesh out some of the characters before getting into the main story. We are thrown in the deep end with these people without knowing anything about them. The best friend sets her up on a date and we don't even get to meet her until half way through the films. Nothing is developed.

It also took it upon its self to deal with Social issues in such a strange way. It will have people make choices about pregnancy and then have other characters scream at them that they are making wrong decisions when it is absolutely nothing to do with them, then they will quickly go back on what they have said because every character in this movie has no motivation for anything apart from the script telling them What to do.

The writer also thought giving characters one 'quirk' made up for underwriting them. The lead loves brushing her teeth...? The other lead loves surfing. I just wrote their character descriptions for you in a sentence.

So I would say don't watch it because I just ended up being Frustrated by it. It could have been cute if they had just spent a bit more time on the script.

With a 70 minute running time you'd think this would be on the short and lightweight side, but the opposite is true. Two very fine lead performances and a grown-up approach to its subject give us a poignant snapshot of a relationship. Things may not work out the way we want them to, but that's what happens when a film maker tries to give us a slice of life instead of crowd-pleasing cliches. And Galt Niederhoffer deserves particular credit for telling the story with economy. It would have been easy to pad it out with another 10-15 minutes to give it a more conventional running time, but that would have detracted from an intelligent, worthwhile movie.

I'll be honest, I didn't expect much when I dared to watch this film, in fact, from the very first scene I thought "Gosh, this seems like one of those cheesy and nonsense Lifetime movies" (and it's kind of like that), but even though I would not say this is the greatest movie ever, I would neither say it's a terrible one; "10 Things We Should Do Before We Break Up" is an actually interesting movie for a good hour, seriously though, I'm the most impatient person and I didn't feel like "OMG, end up already" since it's in fact a pretty short movie. Talking about a deeper manner, characters are not great though and a lot of people say they're actually unbearable, I might not disagree but at least I'd say they're not perfect but human.

The plot is simple but slow for almost an hour, the final stage of her pregnancy goes very fast and we, as an audience, just feel really cold about it, the finale is just "meh", I'd say is unpredictable because I never thought they would dare to end it just like that like I get the fact they're not meant to be, but there's no catharsis, neither an evolution of the characters. By the end, I was just like, "Really?"

Anyway, I'm giving it a 4 since I liked the first part, only that.