He's Just Not That Into You

(2009)

Directed by

Ken Kwapis

Review by Terry Plucknett

There are two types of chick flicks.  There are the corny, cheesy, unbelievable chick flicks that are bad movies that make the girls sigh and the guys say, “Give me a break,” and then there are the fun, believable chick flicks that are good movies make the girls sigh and the guys try to hide the fact they enjoyed it such as When Harry Met Sally… and Love Actually.  The star-studded chick flick, He’s Just Not That Into You, belongs to the first category.

To start to explain the plotline of this film, I run the risk of sounding like a stereotypical high school girl.  First, we meet Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) who is obsessed with every guy that gives her the time of day.  Her current obsession is Conor (Kevin Connolly) who is actually in love with Anna (Scarlett Johansson) who is actually falling for Ben (Bradley Cooper) who is married to Janine (Jennifer Connelly) who works with Gigi and Beth (Jennifer Aniston) who is in a very long-term relationship with Neil (Ben Affleck) who is best friends with Ben.  Confused yet?  If not, I’m not done yet.  Gigi meets a bartender named Alex (Justin Long) who gives her dating advice, while Anna’s best friend Mary (Drew Barrymore) looks for men online while she takes advice from her gay co-workers, who are portrayed as the only voices of reason, as well as the only ones immune from getting into the tangled web of love.  According to this movie, gay men are the only ones that do not have relationship issues.

This film could be characterized as the romantic Crash as all of these people are loosely intertwined, the storylines are all told simultaneously, and almost all characters both break and uphold stereotypes at different points throughout the movie.  However, this film comes nowhere near that kind of quality.  Where in Crash you are left with a snapshot of our society and all its flaws, this film leaves you saying that the stereotypes presented are actually true in all cases.  Three stereotypes come out.  First, women are irrational, over-analytical, and try to seek reasons for every breath a man takes.  Second, men (straight men, that is … remember gay men are perfect in every way) are stupid, stubborn creatures that are incapable of understanding emotions.  Third, no man can resist Scarlett Johansson.  Outside of the last stereotype which is true for all men, the other two proven through completely illogical and irrational storylines.  The only storyline that is real and interesting is the one involving Neil and Beth.  These two have been together for 7 years and Beth wants to get married while Neil does not feel the need to marry.  She sees this as a fear of commitment when it is simply not believing in the philosophy of marriage.  Aniston and Affleck also give the best performances in the film because of this.

This film does have its moments.  However, they are too few and far between.  Also, the film is about 30 minutes longer than it should be.  Instead of ending the film with questions left unanswered, conflicts not resolved, and relationships left in jeopardy, it feels the need to spend 30 minutes to answer every question, resolve every conflict, and wrap every relationship up in a nice little bow.  It left nothing up to imagination, such as Crash did with all its storylines or Sideways did with leaving questions unanswered on the main character’s romance.  This film answered every question you wanted it to leave unanswered, and even some questions you didn’t think needed to be asked.  It is definitely a chick flick for girls to watch and enjoy, while guys most likely will not.

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