Watching "The Break-Up," I fantasized about the tricked-up remote Adam Sandler uses in the upcoming comedy called "Click."

		'The Break-Up' Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, some nudity and language Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston Director: Peyton Reed Post-Gazette Family Film Guide review of 'The Break-Up' "The Break-Up" Web site

If I had one, I could have hit the mute or fast-forward button and skipped the tedious tirades and bothersome bickering that constitute far too much of the movie. Yes, "The Break-Up" is about a split, but you may feel like a party guest who wants to hide the knives and sidle to the door as your hosts verbally slug it out.

A black comedy is one thing, a bleak comedy another, and this veers from one lane to the other. To its credit, however, its destination proves surprisingly atypical.

"The Break-Up" stars Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn as Chicagoans who meet cute at Wrigley Field and, while the opening credits are rolling, become a couple, buy and renovate a condo and appear to be blissfully happy, whether dressing in cow costumes for Halloween, sitting in the glow of the Christmas tree or bowling in a couples league.

Gary (Vaughn) and his two brothers have a company that runs bus tours of Chicago; he's the frontman who revs up the fun and facts for vacationing visitors. Brooke (Aniston), clad in high heels and one little black dress or another, works at a tony art gallery, run by the imperious owner (Judy Davis, with straight, chin-length hair and a serious slash of red lipstick).

Early in this oddball comedy, things start to sour, literally, when Gary only buys three lemons instead of the requested dozen needed for a centerpiece. That starts a cascade of complaints that escalate after a dinner party into a full-fledged argument and airing of grievances.

When Brooke announces she will do the dishes, Gary picks up the control for a video game. She wants him to help clean up, to buy her flowers or go to the ballet or anticipate what she needs. He accuses her of nagging and acting crazy and declares, "I just want to be left the hell alone."

He gets what he wants ... or what he said he wants. He sleeps on the sofa bed; she claims the bedroom. His pals wonder if Brooke is seeing someone else; her confidante (Joey Lauren Adams) advises her about conveying to Gary that his behavior is unacceptable and changes are in order.

The skirmish turns into a war, and, before you know it, their condo is on the market and their orbits spinning farther apart. No one gives them the advice they need -- a quiet, rational discussion -- so Brooke cooks up ways to attract attention and Gary starts to do the same.

"The Break-Up," directed by Peyton Reed and based on a story by Vaughn and screenwriters Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender, has a juvenile, male-oriented slant. It feels like a comedy that should be starring (or about) twentysomethings, not people in their mid-30s, who should have learned a thing or two by now.

The movie spends so little time on the courting and sparking that we never have a sense of what's at stake here. On top of that, much of the bickering descends into mean-spirited, tiresome territory. While the movie has assembled an interesting cast, with Ann-Margret as Aniston's mother and Vincent D'Onofrio as one of Vaughn's brothers, it doesn't use them to great advantage.

"The Break-Up," which features an appearance by the pop-alt country band Old 97's, is a better cautionary tale about growing up and learning to communicate than a comedy. However, it uses Vaughn's hometown of Chicago as both authentic backdrop (the movie ends with a note proclaiming, "Filmed entirely in the United States of America") and symbol, a city that enjoyed a rebirth after the great fire in 1871.

Aniston and Vaughn, who apparently are dating, have chemistry but nothing of Tracy-Hepburn proportions. As she did in "The Good Girl" and "Friends With Money," Aniston proves a solid big-screen actress -- using her surprisingly expressive eyes to telegraph emotion -- while Vaughn (whose hair changes, without notice, from curly to flat to combed back) better shows off his loose charm in buddy comedies or even in the early going here.

"The Break-Up" is not what I thought it would be or what I imagined based on the previews. That proves both good and bad, with closing scenes as mature and open-ended as they are unconventional and not particularly satisfying.