If there was any movie I was ready to hate sight unseen this summer more than “The Break-Up” I’m not sure what it was going to be. Not only did the screening of this comedy come smack dab right in the middle of my first week covering the Seattle International Film Festival, I’d also become so sick of hearing about Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston just the thought of having to endure them in the same flick for two hours was almost becoming enough to make me vomit.

I can pretty much guarantee I’m in the minority here, and that this movie is going to bomb big-time with general audiences, but gosh darn it if “The Break-Up” didn’t just up and surprise me. While I’m not saying Peyton Reed’s (“Bring It On”) comedy of relationship errors isn’t the best thing I’m ever going to recommend, it’s still just smart and perceptive enough to have made me happy I took the time to have gone out and see it. It’s a unexpectedly winning work, one that made me laugh repeatedly, and while it didn’t follow those laughs up with a couple of tears it at least came close, and considering I’d thought this was one I could skip with a clear conscious that’s definitely a very good thing.

Based on a story idea by Vaughn, the most refreshing thing about this is how confidently it dives into what things make up the dissolution of a relationship. The most mundane events can have cataclysmic consequences, things like arguing about lemons and wanting to do the dishes enough to lead to underwear in the hallway at midnight and six packs of Bud Light as a late supper. This is what can happen when love exits the building, and the fact Vaughn and Reed don’t shy away from any of this in the least bit is simply wonderful.

Look, I’m not talking about a masterpiece here. What I am talking about is a good film trying desperately to break out of the romantic comedy box and, for the most part, doing so. There are bits and pieces here that do not work; an obnoxious session with strippers, cigars and poker feels tossed in just for the hell of it, actors like Vincent D’Onofrio, Ann-Margret, Judy Davis, Jason Bateman, Joey Lauren Adams and Cole Hauser are relatively wasted, every bit between Aniston and Justin Long is about as painful as any this year; and the central strand regarding the duo’s Chicago condominium is a bit too “War of the Roses” for my taste. But when Vaughn and company focus slowly on the dissolving relationship between his character Gary and Aniston’s Brooke, “The Break-Up” proves to be an undeniable winner worthy of applause.

If anything, what I liked most about the film was how unafraid it was to not pull its punches. Just because a romance ends doesn’t mean the people finding it disappear don’t still care for one another. Just the opposite, feelings unable to be turned on or off just because separate bedrooms are now the order of the day, they just get magnified as wispy whispers of what was and might have been play havoc with the painful emotions in the here and now tearing two people apart.

For me, the whole thing played more like a Mike Leigh (“Secrets & Lies,” “Vera Drake,” “Career Girls”) film than say an episode of “Friends,” and while Reed doesn’t have quite the dynamic flair for chamber room melodrama that Leigh does his handling of things is still astonishingly certain and matter-of-fact. (It’s also more than a bit reminiscent of a 1997 Robert Greenwald film called “Breaking Up” with Russell Crowe and Salma Hayek, but whereas that one couldn’t figure itself out this one knows exactly what it is and which direction it’s heading.)

Speaking of “Friends,” I can’t help but wish Aniston would have invested a little bit more in her portrayal, much like she did in “The Good Girl” or “Friends with Money,” instead of channeling Rachel. I’ve seen her do Rachel for umpteen seasons on NBC. I’ve watched her channel that character in movies like “Bruce Almighty” and “Rumor Has It…” I’ve watched her channel this character so many times now just the thought of her doing it again is making me nauseous, and if the actress is smart she’s never going to allow me to see a variation on the sitcom character ever again.

Thankfully, there is Vaughn. For an actor I was never quite sure if I was going to like (watch “Domestic Disturbance,” “A Cool, Dry Place” or “The Locusts” and tell me you don’t feel the same), within the last few years he’s suddenly morphed into a talent I can’t get enough of. He’s absolutely stunning in this, so good whenever he wasn’t onscreen I grew impatient and edgy squirming in my seat waiting for him to return. This is a bare, bruising, no-holds barred performance, Vaughn fearless enough to make Gary as unlikable and as prickly as humanly possible. Yet there is a sweetness to him, a deft humanity that makes it easy to see why women like Brooke are so innately drawn to him, and by the time things reach their conclusion I couldn’t help but be moved at the breadth of the man’s willingness to try and change.

When all is said done “The Break-Up” manages to emerge an intelligent movie full of strong ideas and complicated emotions. It will not play for audiences (rumors of hastily re-shot endings to help with this aside) and it left the majority of the mostly female crowd I saw it with up in arms and more than a tad upset. The film doesn’t ask for easy resolutions or tidy red ribboned bows, instead choosing to leave people figuring out what happens next for themselves and assuming they have a brain to actually do just that.

Thank goodness. I’m tired of rote little romantic comedies where everything has to be spelled out right from the start. I’m exhausted by melodramas scared to take chances and leave audiences asking one another what’s going to happen next. Vaughn and Reed don’t hit out of the park, but they do manage a solid double, and if studios want to keep helping filmmakers produce hits like those then they’ll be adding up critical, and hopefully box office, runs like you wouldn’t believe.