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Breakin' All The Rules

2004, Movie, PG-13, 85 mins

Breakin' All The Rules: Review

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This tepid romantic comedy not only fails to break the rules, but it follows them to the letter. Carefree yuppie Quincy Watson (Jamie Foxx) has a beautiful fiancée (Bianca Lawson) and a great job at a high-profile Los Angeles magazine. But his perfect life collapses when the bride-to-be ditches him at their engagement party and decamps with the best man to Paris just as Quincy's perpetually nervous boss, Philip (Peter MacNicol), has assigned him the unpleasant task of firing 15 percent of the magazine's staff. Left an emotional wreck by these twin disasters, Quincy quits his job and holes up in his house, where he pours his pain into a letter to his former fiancée. That letter soon turns into a full-fledged advice manual that details the right way to break up with an unwanted lover. Quincy's playboy cousin, Evan (Morris Chestnut), takes the primer for a successful test drive and overnight "The Breakup Handbook" becomes a publishing sensation. Soon everyone is coming to Quincy for advice, including Philip, who's desperately trying to ditch his gold-digging girlfriend, Rita (Jennifer Esposito). Evan enlists Quincy's help when he decides to break up with his current lover, Nicky (Gabrielle Union), but through a convoluted case of mistaken identity — and without Evan's knowledge — Quincy and Nicky wind up going on a date and eventually fall for each other. The errors pile up swiftly as Evan vows to win Nicky back from her "mystery man" and Rita starts an affair with Evan under the mistaken impression that he's Quincy. Naturally, it's only a matter of time before the truth comes out and Quincy is once again in the relationship doghouse. In the hands of a filmmaker with some flair for comedy, these contrivances might seem funny rather than forced. But TV-trained writer-director Daniel Taplitz displays little imagination and almost no sense of comic timing. The film hews so closely to the urban romantic-comedy formula that the only suspense lies in wondering which cliché Taplitz will exploit next. It's depressing to see Foxx — who's repeatedly demonstrated his skills as a dramatic actor — mug his way through yet another lame comedy, though he and Union, who also comes across as too intelligent for the material, demonstrate some genuine chemistry. When they are on screen together, it's hard not to wish their characters were in the better movie they so richly deserve. leave a comment --Ethan Alter
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