Foxx rules roost in ‘Breakin”

Romantic comedies used to have something big at stake besides the romance. With Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, for instance, there was a dinosaur bone or a yacht. With Doris Day and Rock Hudson, it was an advertising account. Lately, it seems as though every garden-variety “date movie,” especially those with African American leads, can’t think about anything beyond the dynamics of the relationship game itself, a contest of wills involving “playuhs” and whoever’s in their crosshairs.

On the surface, “Breakin’ All the Rules” seems to fit snugly into this predictable groove. For one thing, its cast includes Morris Chestnut, a decorative fixture in such black-oriented relationship roundelays as 1999’s “The Best Man” and 2001’s “Two Can Play That Game.” But this time, Chestnut is backing up Jamie Foxx, who unflappably displays his growing assurance as a screen actor and, in the process, helps bring out the “A game” in Chestnut and other cast members of this agreeably lightweight farce.

Foxx plays Quincy Watson, a men’s magazine editor who’s been asked by his querulous boss (Peter MacNicol) to fire 15% of the staff. That same night, Quincy’s fiancee dumps him for his best man. Too distraught to carry out his boss’ wishes, Quincy lays himself off and uses his freed-up time to write a manual for terminating relationships. The book makes him a pop-cult hero -- and a sounding board for just about every sap with a breakup dilemma.

This would include Quincy’s cousin Evan (Chestnut), a blithe serial Lothario who’s wondering when and how he should cut it off with Nicky (Gabrielle Union), a sultry nurse who, it turns out, is fond of romantic gamesmanship herself. Even Quincy’s boss is soliciting him for advice, in this case on how to dump his gold-digging girlfriend (Jennifer Esposito).

“Breakin’ ” writer-director Daniel Taplitz establishes a cool, dry zone for his actors to carry out the film’s conventional yet fairly seamless plot twists. Even such lowbrow running gags as an alcoholic pug and the inevitable “dirty old man” are handled with light fingers and soft gloves.

The hard-sell comic delivery one expects from contemporary date movies is pleasantly tempered here. MacNicol’s role calls for him to dust off some of his nervous-guy tics from “Ally McBeal.” Still, he does them in a way that makes you glad he’s brought them along. In their scenes together, Foxx and Chestnut trade sly one-liners like front-line horn players in an intimate jazz club, while Union is given her best showcase yet for her comedic timing. They’re all so “on point” with one another that you wonder how they’d handle a missing dinosaur bone.

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‘Breakin’ All the Rules’

MPAA rating: PG-13 for sexual material/humor and language.

Jamie Foxx...Quincy Watson

Gabrielle Union...Nicky Callas

Morris Chestnut...Evan Fields

Jennifer Esposito...Rita Monroe

Peter MacNicol...Philip Gascon

A Lisa Tornell production, released by Screen Gems. Writer-director Daniel Taplitz. Producer Lisa Tornell. Executive producer Paddy Cullen. Cinematographer David Hennings. Editor Robert Frazen. Costume designer Isis Mussenden. Music Marcus Miller. Production designer Jerry Fleming. Art director Peter Borck. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

In general release.

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Gene Seymour is a movie critic for Newsday, a Tribune Co. newspaper.