Hey, all. Capone in Chicago here, setting of the first genuine surprise this summer from a studio release.

I'll be among what I'm guessing will be a growing number of boosters for The Break-Up (I noticed my fellow staff Massawyrn enjoyed this one a great deal as well). I should admit that I'm the absolute wrong guy to be reviewing this film.

First off, I hate celebrity gossip rags and television shows, so the fact that the stars of The Break-Up appear to be dating and perhaps even buying a place in my fair city means nothing to me.

Second, the entire film, every last frame, is shot right here in Chicago. There was a time last year where you could not walk down certain downtown streets or neighborhoods and without running smack-dab in the middle of a location shoot for this movie. I love that the Chicago is experiencing an upswing in film production, from Fox TV's Prison Break to The Ice Harvest to Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers to this little ditty.

Lastly, I'm a Vince Vaughn fan from day one. I remember about 10 years ago being at a sparsely crowded preview screening of Swingers here, meeting Vaughn and his comedy partner Jon Favreau, and having the time of my life discovering a film that I knew would be a highly quotable cult classic. (Favreau has a few nice scenes in The Break-Up as Vaughn best friend, and it's funny that in a way, their roles have reversed sine Swingers, with Vince as the guy trying to get in touch with his emotions and Jon as the man's man with sage advice like "You need to get laid.") I say all this tolet you know where my biases lie.

The biggest surprise about The Break-Up is what it is not. This is not about a couple that breaks up at the beginning of the film, spends the entire film trying to one-up each other to make the other move out of their jointly owned condo, and end up realizing that there¹s no way they can live apart. Let me rephrase that: The Break-Up isn't only these things; in some cases, it isn't these things at all. The film manages not to take side, although this is clearly Vaughn's film, in which he stars as Gary Grobowski, a real Chicago guy. He loves the Cubs, is proud of his Polish heritage, and operates a bus tour operation with his two brothers, played with much enthusiasm by Cole Hauser as Lupus and Vincent D'Onofrio as Dennis (I was genuinely shocked to see D'Onofrio in this film; he's basically playing the Christopher Walken role here as the way-over-the-top, loveable whack-job).

In a charming opening sequence set during a Cubs vs. White Sox game at Wrigley Field, Gary meets Brooke (Jennifer Aniston), who is on a date. The lines Gary pulls out to woo her are not only really funny, but they don't seem out of the realm of possibility in terms of clever pick-up lines. Much of the film has that feel.

While it never misses an opportunity to make jokes at everyone's expense, The Break-Up is grounded in a kind of reality, especially in the scenes involving the dissolution of the Gary-Brooke relationship. The first fight we see them have (and clearly not their first fight ever) takes place after a strained dinner where their two families finally meet.

Director Peyton Reed (Down With Love, Bring It On) wisely does not appear to take sides in these domestic quarrels, and as a result I'm guessing a lot of couples thinking they¹re on a date to see a romantic comedy may be shocked and horrified as to the number of relatively "dramatic" scenes in this film. In fact, these same couples may find themselves on opposite sides of the fence when it comes to these arguments. Gary wants a little time to chill in front after a long day at work. Brooke wants Gary to stop taking her for granted, which he swears he's not doing but strong evidence speaks to the contrary.

After the couple decides to break up, lines are drawn in the condo. Gary takes over the living room, while Brooke isolates herself in her room planning her next move. The worst mistake both make is listening to their friends. Favreau¹s Johnny Q (I love it) is about teaching her a lesson. While Brooke's best friend Addie (Joey Lauren Adams of Chasing Amy fame), wants Gary to know that his behavior is unacceptable. The most frustrating aspect of the film is that the couple never actually just sits down to talk, perhaps even apologize, even if they don't mean it, but the sad fact is that some couples never bother rebuilding the lines of communication once they¹re down.

For a short time, the pair actually do try and out-annoy each other into leaving the condo, but once they decide to sell the place and split the money (thanks to some more advice from real estate agent Jason Bateman, Vaughn¹s co-star in Dodgeball and Starsky & Hutch), the regrets begin to sink in that they let things get this bad so fast. One of the films best scenes has Brooke's very emotional reaction to Gary standing her up at what she believed would be a peace-making night out at an Old 97's concert.

In addition so two strong lead performances, The Break-Up is loaded with a great supporting cast, including Ann-Margret as Brooke's mother; John Michael Higgins as her possibly in-the-closet brother; and Justin Long as Brooke¹s co-worker at an art gallery run by the incendiary Judy Davis. Perhaps the most wonderfully odd bit of casting is the role of Addie's pussy-whipped husband, Andrew, played by the all-grown-up Peter Billingsley (A Christmas Story).

The Break-Up doesn't offer a whole lot of insight into why couples fight, how they do or don't solve their differences, or even bigger-picture questions about men and women. But it does balance is comedy and drama sides extremely well. Vaughn is all about shooting out the rapid-fire sarcasm and overly confident monologues about honeys and sports and video games and the pitfalls of love, but people forget that he guy is a decent actor.

Toward the end of the film, he makes a desperate and honest plea to Aniston to take him back, and shockingly enough director Reed does not choose to set the event in front of thousands of people at a baseball game. It's a private moment that derives the most emotional response from not remaining a spectacle.

There are genuine surprises in this film in both the performances and the plot, and going for the easy joke is rarely the filmmakers' ultimate goal. The Break-Up is quite funny in spots, but it's also is unexpectedly moving at times.

And my guess is that you will not find yourself laughing at the moments in the film when it dares to go a little deeper. We're not talking Woody Allen- or Ingmar Bergman-like depths here, but don't be shocked when this films reality makes you think on occasion between big laughs.

Capone