A romantic comedy about getting dumped isn't the smartest of ideas. You're supposed to leave a date movie scouting for an appropriately dark alley to make out in, not dreading one of those relationship talks while mentally dividing up the record collection. For those in secure relationships, this halfway-amusing Jamie Foxx vehicle will be a passable night out, but the romantically crippled will be bookmarking their partner's every nervous guffaw.

Foxx plays Quincy Watson, a writer at a men's magazine whose spineless boss, Philip (Peter MacNicol), assigns him the unpleasant task of axing a handful of his co-workers. Already bummed at being unexpectedly cut loose by his fiancée (Bianca Lawson) during their engagement party, Quincy quits his job and, using Corporate America's cutthroat employee-termination manuals as a guide, writes a best-selling handbook on how to sink any relationship.

From here, things get a wee bit complicated: as a breakup guru, Quincy is enlisted by both his low-down, dirty-dawg cousin, Evan (Morris Chestnut), and his former boss to assist them in ending their relationships. Philip's gold-digging girlfriend (Jennifer Esposito) has his gonads in a kung-fu death grip, while ladies' man Evan has simply gotten bored with his darling Nicky (Gabrielle Union). Aided by a series of predictable coincidences and a truckload of that good ol' mistaken-identity movie magic, Quincy and Nicky hit it off and fall in love.

While they are often cute together, it's difficult to see what attracts Union's character to the awkward, goofy and decidedly un-suave Quincy. The charismatic Foxx is likeable enough as a lead, but struggles to find the handle here between romantic and zany, opting for adorably gawky instead. Sure, he's a quick-witted, puppy-dog romantic and a best-selling author, but could you ever be romantically secure with someone who's an expert on breaking hearts?

What's worse, writer-director Daniel Taplitz sticks determinedly to the middle of the road, piling on one-liners and cheap laughs while almost completely overlooking his film's best gimmick — the book itself. The bits that do come up, like Quincy's quick 'n' dirty “passive-aggressive bullet-to-the-head technique,” are a good start, but this rich mine of comedic potential goes virtually untapped. The seeds of a cruelly funny battle-of-the-sexes satire are here, but sadly, most of them are wasted on standard-issue rom-com slush.

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