Interpersonal Relationships In The Film 'The Breakup'

Interpersonal relationships are defined in six distinct stages. These stages consist of contact, involvement, intimacy, deterioration, repair, and dissolution. The 2006 film “The Breakup” actually does a great job of exemplifying this. It clearly demonstrates at least one example of each stage throughout the entire course of the film. The first stage is contact and it is defined as the instance where people first meet and begin to decide whether a relationship is worth pursuing. The movie actually opens up with a scene at a baseball game that both our main characters, Brooke and Gary, are attending. They have not met yet at this point but Gary goes out of his way to offer her a hot dog. He continues to persist despite her many refusals until she gives in, it is also implied that the same pushy attitude is what got her to go on a date with him in the first place. …show more content…
Although the movie does not really give us any scenes that show this in action, it does give us a sort of intro scene of pictures of activities that Gary and Brooke have done. The pictures vary greatly, including anything from just eating pizza together at a sports event to spending the holidays with friends. Despite how quick this stage seemed to be shown to the audience, it definitely set the stage on how their relationship has played out ever since the contact stage. Intimacy is probably the stage that is easiest to understand. It is literally commitment to each other and officially being recognized as a couple both by the party and by outsiders. This is seen throughout the film because both of Gary and Brookes family, friends, and co-workers seem to be aware of their relationship. Considering the nature of the film, though, the screen time we get to actually see of them while they are in the intimacy stage is very